Liverpool vs. Stoke City: Winners and Losers from Capital One Cup

Liverpool secured a place in the Capital One Cup final after beating Stoke City 6-5 in a penalty shootout on Tuesday night at Anfield.

Marko Arnautovic scored the only goal over 120 minutes to give Stoke a 1-0 victory after extra time, but Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet was the hero in the shootout, stopping two penalties to send his side to Wembley.

Here, Bleacher Report selects winners and losers from the match.

Winner: Simon Mignolet

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Mignolet has drawn more than his share of criticism this season from pundits and Liverpool supporters, and in fairness, it's been deserved. The Belgian isn't always the most reliable stopper between the goalposts, but on Tuesday night he played the hero for his side in the penalty shootout.

After watching his side fail to score over 120 minutes, Mignolet saved two penalties, including a crucial stop against Marc Muniesa in the sudden death portion of the shootout.

His first stop—against Peter Crouch—was decent enough, but the Stoke man's shot came in at a favorable height and wasn't placed all that well. However, Mignolet had to cover almost half the distance across his line to reach Muniesa's shot, and for that he earns full marks here.

Moments later, Joe Allen converted Liverpool's next kick to send the Reds to Wembley. While he might not be the most popular player at Anfield, Mignolet deserves more than a bit of the credit.

“We always study them [penalties]," Mignolet said after the match, per the Liverpool Echo. "It is very pleasing that it paid off. We were the better team over the two legs.”

Loser: An Offside Goal

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During 120 minutes of football, the two teams created only a few clear chances. Stoke scored the game's only goal in first-half stoppage time as Arnautovic turned in a Bojan Krkic cross from the edge of the six-yard box.

Liverpool were guilty of poor defending throughout the move, with Alberto Moreno diving into an unsuccessful challenge and Kolo Toure failing to track Arnautovic's run into the box. But despite the Reds' defensive deficiencies, the goal shouldn't have stood. Arnautovic was clearly offside when Bojan released the final pass.

In fairness to Stoke, the Potters were just about the better side on the night, creating greater chances for most of the game—especially in the first 90 minutes. But without that officiating mistake, Liverpool would have advanced to the final after a scoreless draw.

Referee Jon Moss and his assistants should have done better.

Winner: Jon Flanagan

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Jon Flanagan earned a starting spot in Liverpool's lineup on Tuesday night, slotting in at right back for the injured Nathaniel Clyne. With that, the 23-year-old defender ended a miserable run of 626 injury-blighted days away from the starting XI (h/t OptaJoe).

The last time Flanagan started a match for Liverpool, the calendar read May 2014, and Brendan Rodgers had nearly guided the Reds to the Premier League title. Twenty months later, he's finally back after an extended ordeal that saw him miss the entire 2014-15 season.

Anfield greeted Flanagan with a warm round of applause, and it was impossible not to feel happy for the young defender on his long-awaited return to the starting lineup. After showing his worth over 105 minutes on the pitch, Flanagan will be optimistic about his chances of seeing more action in the coming weeks.

Losers: A Pair of Long-Running Trends

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Two long-running trends came to an end with Tuesday's match. But only one factored into the bottom line.

First, there was Stoke's wretched record at Anfield. Per OptaJoe, the Potters had not beaten Liverpool in that stadium since 1959, a stretch of 36 games. Arnautovic's goal ensured that streak bit the dust, but Stoke obviously weren't satisfied with how the night turned out.

That's because for the first time in six attempts in all competitions, the Potters failed to win a penalty shootout (h/t OptaJoe). Football can be a funny game sometimes, as these two stats showed.

Winner: Jurgen Klopp in Semifinals

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As Tuesday's match illustrated, manager Jurgen Klopp has work to do at both ends of the pitch. The defense was poor at times, and Christian Benteke failed to impress once again up top.

But the Liverpool boss has at least one stat going in his favor: As noted by Sky Sports Statto, Klopp won all four semifinals he contested while at Borussia Dortmund. That record includes three victories in the German Cup and one in the UEFA Champions League, against Real Madrid no less.