EFL Cup: Man Utd and Liverpool kept apart in semi-finals

Manchester United will play Hull in the semi-finals of the EFL Cup, while Liverpool will take on Southampton.United, who beat West Ham 4-1 in the last eight, will play the first leg of their semi-final at Old Trafford. Southampton, comfortable winners over Arsenal on Wednesday, will host in-form Liverpool at St Mary's before the return leg at Anfield. The two-legged semi-final ties will be played in the weeks commencing 9 and 23 January 2017. Liverpool, winners of the competition a record eight times and finalists in 2016, saw off Leeds on Tuesday with a 2-0 win at Anfield. Hull, who reached the FA Cup final in 2014, needed penalties to overcome Championship leaders Newcastle on Tuesday.

Manchester United eased into the EFL Cup semi-finals as they beat West Ham with manager Jose Mourinho absent from the Old Trafford dugout.

The Portuguese, given a one-match touchline ban before the game, stayed out of view as United set up a last-four tie against Hull City.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic clipped in the opening goal inside two minutes before former United youngster Ashley Fletcher equalised as he pounced on David de Gea's error.

Anthony Martial re-established the home side's lead shortly after half-time, drilling Henrikh Mkhitaryan's pass low into the bottom corner.
The France international stroked in Antonio Valencia's low cross after a well-worked team move, with Ibrahimovic adding the gloss by tapping in with virtually the last kick of the game.
Mourinho will have been pleased with his side's fluent attacking display, and even happy enough to bring on substitute Bastian Schweinsteiger for his first game since March.

Else where Southampton progressed to the semi-finals of the EFL Cup for the first time since 1987 thanks to a convincing victory over a below-par and under-strength Arsenal.
Goals from Jordy Clasie - his first for the club - and Ryan Bertrand secured victory for a Southampton side which inflicted a first defeat on the Gunners since the opening day of the season.
Manager Arsene Wenger, who has never won this competition during his 20-year reign in north London, had made 10 changes to the Arsenal team which beat Bournemouth 3-1 in the Premier League on Sunday and paid the price.

In Aaron Ramsey, Alex Iwobi and Mohamed Elneny, the Gunners had Premier League regulars in their starting line-up - but without Alexis Sanchez, Theo Walcott, Olivier Giroud and Mesut Ozil, they lacked guile and bite.
Southampton, who had only won once in their last 23 visits to Arsenal, deserved the victory and will play Liverpool in the two-legged semi-finals, with the first leg at St Mary's in the week commencing 9 January.