They won it on energy and willpower.
Not on good passing or professional know-how.
Liverpool ran and battled hard but they didn’t have a shot on target in the first 80 minutes.
Benteke made a big difference when he came on for Henderson in 58, used his assets and got passes in as the contest rolled towards extra time.
Stoke played much better football and their goal, by Arnautovic, came from a slick move. Never mind that the Austrian was offside twice in that move.
That made it 1-1 on aggregate and it went to extra time and and penalty shoot-out and Mignolet saved from Crouch and Spanish defender Marc Muniesa.
Emre Can’s penalty smacked noisily against the post but he lived to fight another day after sub Joe Allen slotted calmly from the spot to take the team to Wembley.
So that’s a huge date for Can and Klopp and the Liverpool supporters
I fancied Stoke before he game but couldn’t be bothered put a bet on them.
Just as well : it wasn’t their night.
Second half, Stoke were so much on top, I kept thinking they were 2-0 up.
And I kept thinking that if Coutinho had been playing, Liverpool would have scored. Then sub Van Ginkel raced through on the right but hit Mignolet’s near post.
Man City v Everton tonight?
I now see clearly what I should have seen on Saturday : that these Capital One semi-finals would impact the league performances of the four semi-finalists.
On Sunday we saw the worst of Everton as they lost 1-2 to Swansea.
And maybe Pellegrini was saving Raheem Sterling for tonight.
The classy John Stones had a bad game on Sunday and Lukaku was somewhere between anonymous and invisible.
Captain Phil Jagielka is back tonight.
Yes, Citeh are very creative at home and Aguero is razor-sharp again.
But Everton must go for it. They have nothing to lose and the reward is an all-Merseyside Final at Wembley would get their city rocking.
That’s a final Everton are good enough to win.