Stoke City manager Mark Hughes has claimed that his side were "by far the better team" during this evening's League Cup semi-final second leg against Liverpool.
Marko Arnautovic's controversial goal right on the stroke of half time levelled things up on aggregate after Liverpool had won the first leg 1-0 earlier this month, and that is how things stayed as the match went all the way to penalties.
Liverpool held their nerve in the shootout to come through 6-5, with Joe Allen scoring the decisive spot kick, but Hughes believes that his side deserved more from the tie.
"I thought we were by far the better team. We were behind in the tie and I'm proud of what the players produced," he told Sky Sports News.
"Nobody gave us a chance - why they would do that I don't know. We've proved for a couple of years that we're a good team. I think Liverpool were delighted to go to penalties and then it's a lottery.
"In terms of a performance, I thought we merited a win. We got a win on paper - goodness knows how long it's been since we won here - but the objective was to get to a Wembley final which we didn't."
Stoke had won their previous two League Cup semi-finals, the most recent of which came in 1972.
Barney Corkhill
