ANFIELD — It is always nice to see old friends, especially when they come with presents. Last week, it was Villarreal managed by Inigo Perez, now it was Xabi Alonso’s Chelsea. On Sunday, Mikel Arteta will bring Arsenal to Anfield. All knew Andoni Iraola from youth-team football in Bilbao and San Sebastian.

Villarreal surrendered a two-goal lead in the Champions League. Now Chelsea surrendered a briefly-held one-goal lead to force a penalty shoot-out that gave Liverpool a home quarter-final against Iraola’s former club, Bournemouth, the news of which seemed to give him enormous pleasure. Sunday against the league champions will go a long way to deciding how good Iraola’s Liverpool are.

Making a judgement on a Carabao Cup tie, won on penalties, is a dangerous thing but Liverpool had the advantage of having almost a complete first team on the pitch when spot-kicks were taken. They had better, more expensive players which has not always been the case.

If Alonso and Chelsea are mentioned in the same breath on Merseyside, it will usually be the 2005 Champions League semi-final when Alonso wore red and the noise from the stands was so ferocious that the Chelsea of Jose Mourinho, the Chelsea that would jog their way to the Premier League title, appeared fatally unnerved.

Then, seen from the Kop, Chelsea were arrogant new money, prepared to spend their way to silverware. Now it was Liverpool who had three £100 million players on the bench while Alonso brought on Marco Pelestra, Emmanuel Emegha and Valentin Barco. Young talents, £30-40 million players but none of them is Bradley Barcola. Two of them missed their penalties.

So did Ryan Gravenberch and Wesley Fofana, each of whom had conceded a penalty in normal time and who had otherwise endured forgettable nights. Gravenberch, sent off earlier in the month against Manchester City, is having a forgettable season.

The goalkeepers were not first team, although the fractured jaw that Emi Martinez sustained at Everton ensured Mike Penders will be a regular at Stamford Bridge in the weeks to come. On this evidence, the 21-year-old is unlikely to disappoint.

Bruce Grobbelaar, whose heroics in the shoot-out in Rome won Liverpool the 1984 European Cup, was on hand to watch Alisson Becker’s deputy, Giorgi Mamadashvili, stand up to the men in blue walking towards the penalty spot with a ball tucked under their arm.

Each made a save. Pelestra chipped on to the post before Kostas Tsimikas and Fofana outdid each other for who could shoot most ridiculously over the bar and Liverpool were through.

This was a night that mattered more to Alonso, who described the defeat as “a sad experience but a small setback”. His club is not in the Champions League, form and finances are shaky. The Carabao Cup was, he pointed out, the least important of his priorities. There are two left and since Alonso has become one of the very few Chelsea managers to lose to Tottenham, winning the FA Cup appears the only realistic route to silverware. A win at Anfield would have been proof there are better days ahead. The Carabao Cup with its emphasis on young players is all about better days ahead.

This was a night of penalties. Two in normal time and then the adrenalin rush of the shoot-out which some slightly better finishing would have prevented.

This time the stands did not shake when Chelsea took the field. This is, after all, the Carabao Cup and Anfield did not become animated until Gravenberch brought down Moises Caicedo and by then the game had weaved its way prettily but uneventfully through 40 minutes.

Chelsea’s attempt to protect the lead that Gravenberch’s clumsiness and Morgan Rogers’s conversion had presented them with lasted three minutes. Wesley Fofana decided to go up for a corner with Virgil van Dijk while waving an arm around, duly conceded a penalty for handball which Cody Gakpo put away as easily as Rogers had done. They both proved a rehearsal for what was to come.