Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has admitted that his side could be forced to forfeit their quarter-final clash with Aston Villa.
The Reds secured a win on penalties against Arsenal to secure passage to the quarter-final, whilst Villa beat West Midlands rivals Wolves 2-1.
However, with Liverpool set to travel to Qatar to play the FIFA World Club Cup, Klopp admitted that if the EFL does not provide an acceptable date for the fixture, then his side will be forced to forfeit the game.
Klopp said, via the Mirror.
If they don’t find an appropriate place for us, not 3 am on Christmas Day. They have to make that decision. You have to think about these things.
If you have a fixture list where one team cannot be part of all the games, then you have to think about the fixture list.
Hopefully, it starts now. I really think that’s fair, and this problem is obvious now. We will not be the victim of this problem.
We play tonight, we wanted to win it, we did that, and if they don’t find a proper date for us, then we cannot play the next round and whoever is our opponent will go through.
Read Aston Villa’s verdict
This could be a huge boost for Villa, giving them potentially free passage to the next round of the Carabao Cup without having to play a game.
Success was not on the cards for Villa in this competition, but if Villa could get to the semi-final, then an EFL Cup final could be a possibility.
However, the EFL will surely look for a solution that gets the game played.
