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Adam Lallana reflected on Liverpool’s “perfect” victory over Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium and insisted: “We owed the supporters that performance.”

The gutsy Reds secured a precious 1-0 lead to take back to Anfield for the second leg of their Capital One Cup semi-final courtesy of Jordon Ibe’s first-half strike.

England international Lallana says Jurgen Klopp’s side had a point to prove following Saturday’s wretched league defeat to West Ham.

“It’s a massive win for us,” Lallana told the ECHO.

“We spoke before the game about the need to start well. Against West Ham we were sloppy at the start. We wanted to show our intent against Stoke.

“We wanted to show what it meant for us to be in the semi-finals. We wanted to show how much we want to get this club to Wembley.

“We got the goal, defended really well and had chances to make it more comfortable. It was probably a perfect performance.

“We owed that to everyone connected with the club, but especially the supporters after what happened at West Ham.

“We all knew we didn’t perform to the right level on Saturday and we wanted to put that right. We owed the fans a performance.

“This is a tough place to come. We’ve had some bad results here in the past but we dug deep and got a great win.”

Lallana insists celebrations in the away dressing room were muted because the Reds still have to work to do before they can start planning for a Wembley final against either Everton or Manchester City.

“It’s always tricky over two legs and this is not over yet,” he said.

At times we felt it's been two steps forward and one back

“We still have to finish the job off at Anfield.

“We have put ourselves in a good position. We just need to be professional in the second leg.”

There is much to be achieved before Stoke visit Anfield on January 26.

Liverpool travel to Exeter in the FA Cup on Friday night before crunch league games with Arsenal, Manchester United and Norwich.

Lallana says Klopp’s men must retain the standards set at the Britannia.

“At times it’s felt like we’ve been taking two steps forward and then one step back,” he said.

“As a squad we need to be more consistent. We need to build on that.

“It was vital we came here and put on a good show.

“Now we’ve got a lot of games to come before the return leg. We need to keep this momentum going.”