Manchester City 0 Liverpool 1:Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard's penalty gave his side the advantage after the first leg of their Carling Cup semi-final against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.
The England international slotted home his fourth goal of the season after the hapless Stefan Savic had fouled Daniel Agger in the 13th minute.
City, missing key trio Vincent Kompany, David Silva and Yaya Toure, suffered back-to-back home defeats for the first time since February 2008 having lost to Manchester United in the FA Cup at the weekend.
Liverpool started the more composed and they should have taken a fifth-minute lead. Stewart Downing, playing on the left, played a short ball through the middle which Andy Carroll beat Savic to far too easily but the striker shot too close to Joe Hart with his weaker right foot and the goalkeeper made a good save.
Gerrard then tested Hart with a dipping 25-yard effort which was tipped around the post.
The Liverpool captain’s corner was brilliantly volleyed by Stewart Downing, taking a deflection on its way through a crowd of players, and the goalkeeper again came to his side’s rescue.
However, he was powerless to stop Liverpool’s next shot as from the corner Savic’s foul on Agger was deemed worthy of a penalty and Gerrard slotted home.
It was his second successive goal from the spot, having converted in Friday’s FA Cup third round victory against Oldham, and his fourth in as many starts of an injury-interrupted season.
Mario Balotelli, presumably injured, was substituted in the 39th minute and walked straight down the tunnel as he was replaced by Samir Nasri.
The Frenchman soon drew Pepe Reina into a save low to his left but Milner blazed over City’s best chance after Micah Richards had out-muscled Glen Johnson to get to the byline.
Martin Skrtel’s poor clearance straight to Adam Johnson saw the winger cut inside only to be fouled by Gerrard but the City player curled the free-kick over.
City started the second half better as Liverpool looked to sit on their lead and break on the counter attack.
It required a timely intervention from Skrtel to deny Sergio Aguero a shooting opportunity as he raced on to Adam Johnson’s through-ball.
Liverpool’s cautiousness was threatening to derail all their good work from the first half and when Martin Kelly failed to see Aguero as he passed back to Reina the visitors’ goalkeeper did well to force the Argentinian to shoot over.
Kenny Dalglish replaced Downing with Jose Enrique 30 minutes from time as Liverpool switched to a 5-4-1 formation with Glen Johnson a floating defender.
With 10 minutes remaining Dalglish sent on a sixth defender in Jamie Carragher to play a midfield holding role.
Aguero flicked over a header from Nasri’s cross late on but Kenny Dalglish’s defensive ploy paid off as his side edged closer to a first final in six years.
