Mario Balotelli came off the bench to spark a late turnaround for Liverpool in the League Cup, equalising for the Reds in the 86th minute before Dejan Lovren scored deep in stoppage time to earn a 2-1 win over Swansea City on Tuesday.
Balotelli had gone 445 minutes without a goal before tonight, but his introduction against the Swans proved the catalyst to book a quarterfinal place for the Reds.
Marvin Emnes had given Swansea, which won the competition in 2012, the lead soon after the hour mark when he volleyed in off a pass from Neil Taylor.
Before then Bafetimbi Gomis had missed two good opportunities to put the visitors in front at Anfield, where Liverpool had not beaten a fellow Premier League side in the League Cup since 2006.
That run looked set to continue, especially after Rickie Lambert had a header cleared off the line by Angel Rangel before shooting straight at the Swansea goalkeeper in the minutes after Emnes’ goal.
But the introduction of Balotelli, who has been much criticised in recent times, in place of Lambert was followed by the Italian beating his marker to turn in a Fabio Borini cross for the equaliser.
Swansea defender Federico Fernández then got sent off for a foul on Philippe Coutinho, with the Brazilian’s cross in from the resultant freekick beating the Swansea keeper and finding Lovren at the backpost to head in the Liverpool winner in the fifth minute of stoppage