Liverpool 3 Leicester 3 (5-4 penalties)

Liverpool 3 Leicester 3 (5-4 penalties): Kelleher scores the game-winning penalty as Klopp’s stand-ins complete a dramatic Carabao comeback.

Liverpool’s spot-kick hero was CAOIMHIN KELLEHER, as the Irish goalkeeper guided his team to the Carabao Cup last four.

As Jurgen Klopp’s team battled back from the brink of elimination to beat Leicester, Kelleher made two crucial saves in the shootout, including the crucial sudden death shot from Ryan Bertrand.

The Foxes wasted a 3-1 lead when Takumi Minamino equalized for Liverpool five minutes into stoppage time, sending the quarter-final to penalties.

Kelleher, 23, thought he had done enough when he saved Luke Thomas’ penalty kick, leaving Minamino with the job of winning the draw with the decisive penalty kick.

However, the Japan international blazed his effort over the crossbar, sending the game into sudden death, where defender Bertrand’s low strike was too feeble. Diogo Jota won the tie this time with no mistakes.

The fact that Liverpool made it through was due more to the players’ spirit and Leicester’s abrupt implosion than to anything Klopp had done.

He’ll point to guys like Jordan Henderson, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, and Roberto Firmino in the team, but Mo Salah and Sadio Mane weren’t even on the bench, sending a clear message to his teammates.

It meant Leicester attacked the game as if they knew it was theirs to lose, and they stormed into a two-goal lead in no time.

When Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall released Patson Daka down the side of the Liverpool defense only to be stopped by a smart Kelleher save in the fifth minute, the danger flags were already there.

On nine minutes, Liverpool’s frailty in the centre of the defense, where Joe Gomez and debutant Billy Koumetio were all at sea, was their undoing.

Vardy was let in down the side of Koumetio by Maddison, and the veteran delivered a low show across Kelleher and into the bottom corner.

Leicester extended their advantage three minutes later, when another ball from midfield, this time by Dewsbury-Hall, released Daka, who squared for Vardy to score.

Liverpool’s poor team selections were exposing them, but to their credit, the lads dug deep and came back into the game on 19 minutes.

Firmino, making his first start in two months, controlled the ball eight yards out and slid a pass into the path of Oxlade-Chamberlain, who scored from just inside the box.

The Anfield crowd suddenly rediscovered its voice and rallied behind the youthful team, recognizing a slim possibility of regaining parity.

However, the Foxes’ excitement was snuffed out in spectacular fashion by an absolute belter of a third goal.

When Maddison recovered control 30-yards out, there appeared to be little danger, but the midfielder took a couple of strides forward and fired a thunderbolt into the back of the net, leaving Kelleher startled in the Reds goal.

Vardy then squandered a wonderful opportunity to put the game out of reach before halftime when he snatched the ball off Gomez and raced clear through, only to see his effort fly back off the post.

Liverpool felt a chance with a two-goal deficit, and only a last-ditch stop from Caglar Soyuncu denied them an equaliser – and for his troubles, the defender pulled his hamstring and had to leave the game.

Klopp sent on some more established talent in the form of Diogo Jota and Naby Keita late in the game, while Rodgers decided to ring the changes himself by making four subs.

Rodgers was the guilty manager this time for attempting to be too clever, as his team was caught napping on 68 minutes when Jota latched on to Minamino’s pass to bring the Reds back to within one goal.

Liverpool had been granted the initiative, and they threw all they had at scrambling an equaliser, but without producing any clear-cut chances.

Then, in the fifth minute of stoppage time, Liverpool salvaged the equaliser when Minamino snuck in behind the Leicester defence and fired low into the bottom corner, leaving Leicester reeling.

Liverpool will now meet Arsenal in the last four, with the first leg taking place at the Emirates on January 3 and the second leg following a week later.