Fulham 1-1 Liverpool (agg 2-3): Reds book Wembley final against Chelsea after nervy Carabao Cup semi-final, with Issa Diop setting up dramatic finish after Luis Diaz’s early goal

In a season of great beauty, sometimes a bit of grit is worth its weight in silver. For Jurgen Klopp, a 10th cup final in nine seasons at Liverpool was hard won and secured to a feeling of relief last night.

Make no mistake, this was a tough evening on the banks of the Thames and the sort of semi-final, against the sort of opposition, that simply refused to die. And great credit to Fulham for that.

Even when they conceded to Luis Diaz so early in the evening, doubling their deficit on aggregate, there was no wilting from Marco Silva’s side. No backing down.

They pushed, they found weaknesses, they hit a post, and then they scored through Issa Diop. From 3-1 down and dead across the two legs, it was 3-2 with 10 minutes to play and very much alive. Klopp looked murderous.

But here’s the thing with Liverpool, or rather Liverpool 2.0, if we recognise that Klopp has orchestrated an excellent remodelling of his squad: they’re tough. They are resilient. They can dance and they can punch. And so in a week of British storms, they rode out another and did what needed to be done. Shots from Harry Wilson came and went, so too dangerous surges through the middle by Willian, but Liverpool held on.

It had none of the elegance of some of their performances in this campaign, but that doesn’t matter a jot when finals are at stake. As such, they will face Chelsea for all the marbles at Wembley on February 25, which sits nicely alongside their current status as Premier League leaders.

Time will tell if the absence of Mohamed Salah is detrimental to efforts on both of those fronts, and likewise if susceptibility to counters manifest into a deeper issue, but for now the outlook is bright.

Ahead of the match, Silva had demanded an atmosphere. He wanted it to be suffocating and ‘really difficult’ — all those intangibles that might provoke a turnaround. A nice sentiment but tricky to pull off with most of the new Riverside Stand not yet opened.

That being said, Silva deployed a strong side, with two changes to the XI that lost to Chelsea in the Premier League. Namely, Timothy Castagne and Bobby Decordova-Reid came in for Kenny Tete and Harry Wilson.

As for Klopp, there was a touch more rotation following the Bournemouth win, with Caoimhin Kelleher, Jarell Quansah, Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo coming in. Notable was the presence of Andy Robertson on their bench for the first time since he injured his shoulder 13 weeks ago.

It is a mark of Klopp’s reinvention of this squad, and the promise of Conor Bradley within his defence, that Robertson’s absence hasn’t been felt more profoundly. But here they were tested.

In the first instance that meant a flurry of three Fulham chances in the space of two minutes prior to Liverpool’s opener. Two of them were quick counters down opposing flanks that hinted at mild vulnerabilities behind each of Klopp’s full backs and the other was a skied volley by Joao Palhinha which he ought to have buried.

The looseness of Gomez’s set-piece marking for that latter chance riled Klopp and rightly so — they made a hash of defending Andreas Pereira’s corner and were fortunate the finish was poor.

With the warning sounded, Liverpool activated some sharper play and led after 11 minutes, assisted by rather weak defending and dubious goalkeeping.

The move was initiated by Quansah, who pinged 50 yards from right to left and into the path of Diaz. At that stage, Castagne wildly misjudged the flight of the ball and lost his aerial battle with Diaz, which in turn allowed the forward to cut in. His shot was given extra bite by deflections off both Tosin and Palhinha, but Bernd Leno was awfully slow in getting down to his near post. That stung for Silva, but his side were still in the fight, proven by a pair of moderate chances for Raul Jimenez and Willian.

And yet Liverpool were predominantly comfortable, with Diaz having a second goal rightly disallowed for offside and Harvey Elliott a delightful blur of movement in the middle.

Issa Diop levelled for Fulham late on but Fulham couldn’t find the second goal they needed

Towards the end of the half his touch and delivery almost made an assist for Darwin Nunez, only for Gravenberch to get ahead of Nunez and blow the opportunity.

Same goes for a chance at the start of the second half. Fulham were caught between defending Nunez and tracking the run of Diaz, which allowed the Colombian space for a surge up the left. With Gakpo speeding through the middle, Diaz played behind the run and wasted the opening.

The risk of retaliation therefore lived on and almost came to pass a moment later, when Kelleher lost a battle of shoulders with Tosin under a cross and the loose ball worked its way to Pereira. With the keeper gone, he had a small window at an open goal but hit the frame. Klopp was fuming and then exasperated when an immediate Liverpool counter saw Elliott shoot directly at Leno. A better save quickly followed when Leno tipped away Nunez’s curler.

Fulham were on the brink, but then they weren’t. The goal was excellent in its creation, with Wilson skinning Bradley at right back and squaring for Diop. Using his knee, he bunted past Kelleher.