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What was comfortably Liverpool’s youngest ever team gave a superb account of themselves at Villa Park on Tuesday night.

Performances from players all over the pitch, including 16-year-old Harvey Elliott and 17-year-old Ki-Jana Hoever, were simply excellent.

Despite the 5-0 scoreline - four of the goals coming in the first half - and the fact the Reds were knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Aston Villa, the young players did more than anyone could have even expected of them.

The result was not at all a fair reflection of the game and in reality a senior Premier League side stocked with fully fledged international players was the only real difference between the teams.

And in reality, it was always going to be wasn’t it?

But this was no embarrassment for Liverpool whose Academy players worked tirelessly to create chances and press the home side at every opportunity only to unfortunately find no reward for their efforts.

HERE is how every Liverpool player fared against Aston Villa as Harvey Elliott and Ki-Jana Hoever impress

And this was in no way Aston Villa’s fault, simply beating the team put in front of them to advance into the semi-finals.

Instead, this was an embarrassment for the League Cup organisers.

It was the 193rd meeting between Liverpool and Aston Villa with the first contest between the two clubs taking place back in 1894.

Despite the amount of matches played between two of the oldest clubs in English football, they have only met twice in the League Cup and given what happened here Liverpool will rightly have no time for the competition.

There was, before this match took place, an impasse over the fixture congestion Liverpool were faced with as Jurgen Klopp’s men had to play both the quarter-final and in the Club World Cup inside 24 hours, which ended up forcing the club’s hand with this team selection.

The Reds and the English Football League originally believed it could be resolved by moving this Carabao Cup tie to January 8.

Make no mistake, FIFA’s Club World Cup is not the problem as Chelsea and Manchester United competed in the competition in 2012 and 2008 respectively while still involved in the League Cup and Champions League without running into the sort of fixture pile-up Liverpool were faced with.

What was different here though was the fact the League Cup quarter-finals are now closer to Christmas, as they have been for the last few seasons, and this was the first time an English team had been involved since 2012 in the Club World Cup.

Delaying the Carabao Cup tie until January 8 was naturally Liverpool’s preferred option at the outset but they conceded to the Carabao Cup organisers in order that the competition was not compromised.

Instead it ended up with the organisers decision compromising Liverpool’s youth players as the boys took on a near impossible task of trying to defeat a strong Premier League team who spent more than £100 million on players in the summer and eased off in the second half.

Despite this though, and while they might not all have careers at Anfield, this will be a night every single Liverpool player will always look back on with pride no matter what they go on to achieve.