Okazaki and Slimani fire Leicester past toothless Liverpool

Liverpool handed Oxlade-Chamberlain his first start in a red shirt, but not in his desired central midfield position. The former Arsenal man began the game on the right wing as the Reds came up against a Leicester side that made eight changes from last weekend’s Premier League clash against Huddersfield.

The visitors dominated the early stages and could have been ahead after just 6 minutes. Coutinho played in Robertson down the left, he fizzed a ball across goal that Oxlade-Chamberlain met with a low strike, but strong defending from Ben Chilwell saw the shot blocked.

A minute later the ball dropped for Solanke following a corner, he turned well but drove a low strike just wide.

On 10 minutes, Coutinho showed why he was targeted by Barcelona all summer by dancing his way through the Leicester defence and unleashing a powerful shot. Hamer was forced to dive and did well to push away.

Gray, who looked bright throughout the game, had Leicester’s first chance of the matchup. He nipped in and stole the ball in his own half and drove into the attacking third before striking from 25 yards out. Ward, however, was not troubled and saved comfortably.

Solanke had his second opportunity when Robertson whipped in a delightful low cross, but the young striker was on the stretch and couldn’t control his shot.

Liverpool had another major chance to go ahead just before the half-hour mark. Solanke's shot was blocked and rolled into the path of Robertson, who fired a ball across goal that was begging for a red shirt to get on the end of, but Coutinho looked flat-footed and wasn’t able to react.

The Brazilian had the perfect opportunity to score from a free-kick 20 yards out. Coutinho, however, got his angles all wrong and sent the effort high and wide.

Solanke had another good opportunity just before the break. Coutinho dinked a ball through for the Englishman, who tried to lob Hamer but his effort was too high.

Leicester came into the game after half-time and had a dangerous free-kick in a similar position to that of Coutinho in the first-half. Gray stepped up but also failed to hit the target and the chance was wasted.

The home side were forced into an unusual change after 51 minutes when Ulloa headed away a Liverpool corner. After being looked at by the physio, he was forced off as a precaution and Okazaki came on in his place.

And the substitute made an immediate impact after 66 minutes. Liverpool's defensive frailties shone through as they only half clear a corner. The ball was chipped back into the box, Morgan flicked on and Iborra nodded into the path of Okazaki, who controled with his knee before slotting past Ward from just inside the box.

Liverpool looked for a quick response and almost had it through substitute Woodburn. He cut in from the left and looked to curl a strike into the top corner, but the effort was just too high and clipped the roof of the net.

Leicester doubled their with 15 minutes to play. Slimani cut in from the right and unleashed a left-footed strike the flew into the top corner. Ward, who put in a decent display between the sticks, had no chance of saving the fierce shot.

Gray almost made it three minutes later but the Liverpool goalkeeper produced a good save to keep the deficit at two.

Jurgen Klopp’s men looked to have run out of steam in the closing stages and never looked like grabbing a goal back. Leicester closed the match out in style to progress to the fourth round of the Carabao cup.