Southampton secured their first League Cup final since 1979 with a stunning 1-0 victory at Anfield, deservedly claiming a 2-0 aggregate semifinal win over Jurgen Klopp's team, who are now under threat of seeing their season unravel.
While Claude Puel and Southampton can plan for next month's trip to Wembley, with Shane Long's stoppage time winner at Anfield banishing any fears of a late Liverpool fight-back, Klopp must now find a way of getting his faltering team back on track to avoid another cup exit this weekend.
Liverpool have now scored just six goals in their last seven games, been dumped from the EFL Cup and seen themselves fall to fourth place in the Premier League, 10 points adrift of leaders Chelsea. If they fail to beat Antonio Conte's men at Anfield next Tuesday, their flickering title hopes will be snuffed out and the threat of missing out on the top four altogether will become a real and present danger.
Since losing Sadio Mane to the African Nations Cup earlier this month, Liverpool have won just once in seven games -- an FA Cup replay against League Two Plymouth Argyle -- and their season is beginning to fall apart. Southampton out-foxed Klopp's team in both legs, defending magnificently over 180 minutes and rendering Klopp's game-plan impotent.
Perhaps the secret is out with Liverpool. They are too predictable and clearly without an obvious Plan B, but Klopp needs to find one. Until then, the wait for silverware goes on. Liverpool have now won just one major trophy in the past decade and the two-legged semifinal with the Saints represented a glorious chance to end that miserable run. But it is Southampton who now have the chance to end their own silverware drought, which stretches back to the 1976 FA Cup Final win against Manchester United.
United, two goals up from their semifinal first leg against Hull City, are Southampton's likeliest opponents at Wembley. Perhaps history will repeat itself.
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