‘We have to go for it’ – Fulham boss makes second leg admission after Liverpool EFL Cup defeat

Fulham boss Marco Silva says his side will attack Liverpool in the second leg of their EFL Cup semi-final after their 2-1 first-leg defeat at Anfield on Wednesday night.

Willian put the visitors ahead in the 19th minute when Andreas Pereira capitalised on a Virgil van Dijk mistake to find the Brazilian attacker inside the area. 

Ex-Chelsea forward Willian skipped past three defenders before drilling a shot beyond Caoimhin Kelleher.

The Reds equalised in the 68th minute when Curtis Jones took aim from outside the penalty area and his shot deflected up off Tosin Adarabioyo and looped over Bernd Leno.

Liverpool were without key players Trent Alexander-Arnold, Mohamed Salah and Endo for the first-leg clash, but Jurgen Klopp was able to call upon Coady Gakpo and Darwin Nunez from the bench.

Dutch attacker Gakpo put Liverpool 2-1 up three minutes after Jones’ leveller when he slotted Nunez’s cross inside the area past the Fulham keeper.

The second leg will take place at Craven Cottage on Wednesday 24th of January.

“It’s still tight,” said Silva.

“We lost the first half [of the tie] – we have to go for it in the second.

“This game was two different halves. I have to say that performance-wise, it wasn’t our best.

“We were ruthless in the first half. It was a really good moment with Willian when we scored. We didn’t give them many things in the first half.

“There weren’t many chances for Liverpool in the first half. It was different in the second half, we struggled a little bit more.

“We lost our composure after it went to 1-1 – we should keep our maturity to manage the moments in a different way.

“We have to go for it in the second half. We will be at home and we have to do our best because we have the ambition of playing at Wembley.”