Hansen: 'Let's take City advantage'
Alan Hansen believes Liverpool can take full advantage of a Manchester City side that will be without several key players for the first leg of the Carling Cup tie at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday night.
The former Reds skipper is quietly confident Kenny Dalglish's charges can rise to the occasion over the two games and reach Wembley, but warns that Liverpool must ‘eradicate any mistakes at the back’.
The legendary No.6 scored the second goal that helped Bob Paisley's side to League Cup glory in 1981 which turned out to be the winner in a final replay against West Ham at Villa Park.
Kenny Dalglish slotted home the opening goal on the day as the Reds won the trophy for the first time in the club's history edging out the Hammers.
That year they beat Manchester City at the semi-final stage of the competition and Hansen believes Kenny's current crop can topple City again to head back to Wembley.
"Anything can happen over a two-legged semi-final and the aim for Liverpool is to get a result at City that gives us a great chance of getting to Wembley when we bring them back to Anfield," Hansen told LFC Weekly Magazine.
"Kenny will concentrate on the positives from last week's game. There was never three goals difference between the two teams - Liverpool played well and the score line flattered City.
"That said, we lost and Kenny won't ignore that."
Hansen was the rock at the heart of Liverpool's defence from 1977 to 1990, playing 620 games for the club and he says that City's defence will be substantially weakened with Vincent Kompany ruled out of both legs through suspension.
Hansen has labelled Kompany's absence as a 'massive boost for Liverpool'.
Man City are also without brothers Kolo and Yaya Toure who are away on African Cup of Nations duty with Ivory Coast.
"One of their other stars Yaya Toure is away on African Cup of Nations duty and he will be a big, big loss for them," added Hansen.
"All of a sudden I'm thinking we've got a chance here. With their two most consistent players [Kompany and Yaya Toure], who were also their best players against us in the Premier League game, potentially missing it gives us a better opportunity for progressing."
"As Kenny said himself, all three of City's goals were soft. They all came from mistakes by Liverpool players and obviously such errors need to be cut out."