Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp hailed the performance of Jon Flanagan in the wake of the Capital One Cup semi-final victory over Stoke City on Tuesday night.

Flanagan featured for 105 minutes of the eventual penalty shootout victory over the Potters and the defender's performance was one of the highlights for the Reds, considering that he had been out for almost 20 months with injury prior to his return as a substitute in the FA Cup just a week ago.

Klopp was delighted with Flanagan's performance on the night and labelled the right-back as his man of the match following the game.

When asked about Flanagan's showing, Klopp said: "My man of the match. He was great.

"105 minutes after – you know it better than me – May 2014, right? So it's unbelievable making this match. Usually of course we know it's not the best thing (playing so long) but we had no other choice and we always were in contact with him, asking Flanno.

"Even when we took him out he was saying 'I could go on'. That was really great and with all the problems you lose the feeling for the game, you can lose it in shorter times.

"You can do all your things with the ball, that's what you don' t forget, but defending in the right spaces, we defend different maybe than when he played last time. He did really great, man of the match for me for sure."