If Liverpool are to reach a second-successive League Cup final, they will have to overcome a 1-0 deficit when they host Tottenham Hotspur in their semi-final second leg on Thursday night. Given home advantage at Anfield, you would not bet against them.

Of course, the two sides’ respective form this season also favours the Reds. They are six points clear at the top of the Premier League table, through to the Champions League round-of-16 after topping the inaugural league phase and Arne Slot has lost only three of his 36 matches in charge to date.

In contrast, Tottenham - who were thrashed 6-3 by Liverpool in the Premier League back in December - are 29 points behind the Reds in 14th place, having played a game more.

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While they ended a seven-game winless run in the Premier League last time out, winning 2-0 away at Brentford, Ange Postecoglou’s side have badly struggled since November. Admittedly stung by injuries, they have still lost 14 of their 37 games in all competitions.

Set to be without 10 first team players against the Reds, the odds are against Spurs despite them boasting a 1-0 aggregate lead.

And their record at Anfield will do little to give Tottenham confidence. They have won only one of their last 27 visits to the red half of Merseyside, dating back to May 1999, and are winless from the last 14 away matches since May 2011.

But it’s not from lack of trying. With Jurgen Klopp turning Liverpool into genuine Premier League and Champions League contenders, the two sides’ last seven meetings at Anfield dating back to February 2018 have all been hard-fought, dramatic affairs.

The Reds have won five and drawn two of these clashes, with their meetings during this period resulting in a whopping 28 goals. From those strikes, six have come in the 90th minute with Liverpool recording three last-minute winners.

Last May, Liverpool raced into a 4-0 lead inside an hour, only to endure a nervy finish as Spurs scored two consolations in a five-minute period as they suffered a 4-2 defeat.

Yet the nerves were only so high given what had happened 12 months earlier when the two sides fought out a seven-goal thriller at Anfield. On this occasion, the Reds were 3-0 up after just 15 minutes only to be pegged back by Tottenham. Richarlison had seemingly earned a share of the spoils with a 90th minute equaliser, before Diogo Jota went up the other end and struck an even later winner.

In May 2022, Luis Diaz cancelled out Son Heung-Min’s opener in a 1-1 draw. Viewed in isolation it is perhaps nothing special, but considering Liverpool missed out on the Premier League title by a point to Man City and it was the only time Klopp’s side dropped points from their final seven league games, it was admittedly most costly.

In December 2020, Roberto Firmino scored a last-minute winner as headed home from a corner to secure a 2-1 win, while in the Reds’ Premier League title-winning year, Mohamed Salah’s 75th minute penalty earned a victory by the same scoreline in October 2019 as Liverpool fought back from falling behind to a Harry Kane strike in the first minute.

In March 2019, when also going for the title against Man City, a last-minute Toby Alderweireld own goal earned a 2-1 Liverpool win.

And in February 2018, both sides exchanged last-minute goals as they fought out a 2-2 draw. Salah had seemingly clinched the points for the Reds after a late equaliser from Victor Wanyama, but Kane stepped up to earn a share of the spoils when an even later controversial penalty.

Evidently, such encounters have recently often proven to be edge of your seats affairs, with an emotive Liverpool fuelled by the high-energy of Klopp and the Anfield crowd.

With a final place at Wembley up for grabs, perhaps it will be the same again on Thursday.

However, Slot’s Liverpool are a different animal to his German predecessor’s side. More cold-blooded than emotive, they instead look to keep control of matches far more than Klopp’s team’s chaotic nature, and have seemingly benefitted from such tweaks this season.

On paper, that should work in the Reds’ favour as they look to march towards Wembley. But football isn’t won on paper. Only time will tell if Liverpool are aided by their stylistic post-Klopp change on Thursday night, or if Anfield should strap itself in for another end-to-end electrifying encounter.