Liverpool are scheduled to welcome Leicester City to Anfield for the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday evening.

The Reds dropped their first points since the start of November with a jam-packed draw away to Tottenham on Sunday while Leicester sat out their second postponed match of the week. The Foxes reopened their training ground over the weekend after a 48-hour hiatus to try and stem the spread of COVID-19 through the playing and coaching staff.

Here’s all you need to know about the upcoming League Cup clash.

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When is kick off? Wednesday 22 December, 19:45 (GMT)
Where is the match being played? Anfield
TV channel/live stream? This game will not be showed live in the UK, ESPN+ (US), DAZN (Canada)
Highlights? Carabao Cup on Quest (22:30 – 22 December), Sky Sports YouTube Channel
Referee? TBC
VAR? TBC

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Thiago Alcantara will miss this afternoon’s Premier League fixture with Tottenham Hotspur after registering a suspected positive test for COVID-19.

Jordan Henderson is also absent because of illness, but has registered a negative test for COVID-19.

— Liverpool FC (@LFC) December 19, 2021

Thiago Alcantara joined Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho and Curtis Jones as Liverpool players with positive COVID-19 tests ahead of Sunday’s ding dong. Fellow midfielder Jordan Henderson has cold symptoms but returned a negative test, though is also likely to miss out.

While Andy Robertson sits out the tie through suspension, Nathaniel Phillips will miss the chance to benefit from Jurgen Klopp’s rotation policy for cup competitions with a fractured cheekbone. Divock Origi (knee) and Adrian (calf) are also doubts.

You can read Liverpool’s predicted lineup here.

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The potential availability of centre back pairing Jonny Evans and Caglar Soyuncu is a rare boost to a squad still littered with COVID and injury absences. Fellow defenders Wesley Fofana and James Justin could make their long-awaited returns in the new year but join a glut of players on the sidelines in the immediate future.

Kelechi Iheanacho, Ayoze Perez and Jannik Vestergaard were among the original contingent that sat out Leicester’s Europa League trip to Napoli on 9 December. Ademola Lookman, Vontae Daley-Campbell, Filip Benkovic and Hamza Choudhury also missed the Foxes‘ 4-0 stroll over Newcastle in the club’s most recent outing.

Even if the first players that contracted the virus return to training having served their isolation period, there is no guarantee that Brendan Rodgers will toss them straight back into action.

You can read Leicester’s predicted lineup here.

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Leicester’s 3-1 victory in the last meeting between the sides ended a run of seven winless outings against Liverpool (a sequence in which the Reds won six).

The Foxes also prevailed in their most recent League Cup clash with Liverpool, progressing into the fourth round of the competition thanks to goals from the departed duo of Shinji Okazaki and Islam Slimani in 2017.

However, Liverpool boast the superior record overall, winning 50 of the 115 competitive head-to-heads over the years, drawing 25. Leicester’s only Anfield win in any competition this century came in their first trip of the millennium – the Foxes have lost eight of their last ten visits to the red half of Merseyside since May 2000.

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Liverpool may have had their eight-game winning streak halted by the last team they faced coming out of a postponement pileup, but that is hardly just cause to overlook their stunning campaign so far, and the somewhat underwhelming nature of Leicester’s.

Rodgers has overseen just two victories in Leicester’s last seven domestic matches, both of which came against prime relegation candidates Newcastle and Watford (and the latter arguably did enough to earn a share of the spoils).

Klopp’s Reds operate in a different realm to those sides and most others in the division – if not the continent, earning them deserved status as favourites for the tie.

Prediction: Liverpool 2-1 Leicester