Harvey Elliott hailed Liverpool's "team effort" after they beat Southampton 2-1 at St Mary's Stadium to progress to the semi-finals of the EFL Cup.

Darwin Nunez gave his side the lead on the south coast before Elliott fired home their second in a dominant first half.

Cameron Archer pulled one back on 59 minutes, leaving half an hour for the Saints to pile pressure on Liverpool's young outfit, but the visitors held on.

Reds' boss Arne Slot had left Virgil van Dijk, Ryan Gravenberch and Mohamed Salah out of his squad completely, fielding Tyler Morton and Trey Nyoni from the start and other young players off the bench.

Elliott was pleased by how each individual contributed to a victory that keeps their chances of winning this trophy for the third time in four seasons alive.

He said: "We came into the game knowing the circumstances that Southampton [who are managerless] are going through and knew they were going to come out fighting.

"We were ready for it. Some of us haven't played much this season, we had some really young lads in the team.

"We fought as a team, and thankfully we came away with a win."

Liverpool are now 20 matches unbeaten in all competitions, with Slot's only blemish a defeat to Nottingham Forest back in September.

It is a different story for Southampton, though, who are seven games without a win but can take some encouragement from the way they fought back into the game in the second half.

Elliott said: "I wouldn't say I was surprised by Southampton because they caused problems for us in the Premier League as well.

"They are not scared to play out from the back and take risks. Credit to them, they caused problems for us today.

"We had to make sure we stood strong and defended as well as we can as a team. And despite conceding one goal, we did that really well."

Slot, who was serving a touchline ban, watched the match from the St Mary's press box but was delighted his side were able to seal progress to the final four.

The Dutchman is now determined to make it count by retaining the trophy in March.

He said: "It doesn't matter too much what your back line is if you have the ball as much as we did in the first half. Then you have control.

"Second half, the control was not there as much, so your defenders are exposed, especially if they are not defenders. We handled it really well and only conceded one or two chances.

"We have to defend the trophy because the club won it last season. As a club, we want to compete for all trophies, but we are also aware of Arsenal, Newcastle [United], Tottenham and Manchester United. It's a tough competition."