Liverpool have been crowned 2021/22 Carabao Cup champions after Chelsea in a dramatic penalty shoot-out on Sunday night.
Carabao Cup Final
Result: Chelsea 0-0 Liverpool (Liverpool won 11-10 on penalties)
Date: 27 February 2022
Venue: Wembley Stadium
Alisson and Curtin Jones made way in the Liverpool starting lineup and were replaced by Caoimhin and Jordan Henderson. Meanwhile, Chelsea also made two changes as Trevor Chalobah and Mason Mount came in for Andreas Christensen and Hakim Ziyech.
Liverpool were dispossessed and Kai Havertz broke on the counter before releasing Cesar Azpilicueta down the right and the Chelsea captain found Christian Pulisic. The American let fly and it was rebounded by Kelleher back into the path of Marcos Alonso, who blasted over from the outside of the box.
With just over a quarter of an hour gone, Sadio Mane should have given the Reds the lead when he ran into the box unnoticed to latch to get on the end of Trent Alexander-Arnold's cross but got his header all wrong as it went well wide.
Soon after Edouard Mendy produced some heroics to keep the scores level. The Senegalese shot-stopper first kept out Naby Keita's stinging effort in the bottom right corner and then showed tremendous agility to spring back up on his feet and block Sadio Mane's close-range effort.
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Five minutes after the interval, Pulisic showed great vision when he chipped the ball over the top of the Chelsea defence for Mason Mount, who broke the offside trap, took the ball down and tried to place it in the bottom right corner but it unluckily hit the post and went to safety.
Liverpool thought they had taken the lead with 20 minutes to go. Trent Alexander-Arnold's ball towards the far post was headed back across goal into the path of Joel Matip, who headed into the back of the net from close range. However, after further inspection by VAR as Virgil van Dijk was adjudged to have fouled in the box.
The Blues almost snatched it with the final action of the match. Marco Alonso drilled in a low cross from the byline and Romelu Lukaku got a foot to it as Kelleher got down well at his near post.
Lukaku thought he had silenced the critics in the 98th minute when he was played in by Trevor Chalobah's through-ball and slotted past Kelleher, however the Belgian had strayed marginally offside much to his disappointment.
Blues boss Thomas Tuchel brought on penalty expert Kepa Arrizabalaga in the 119th minute for Mendy. However, that backfired on Chelsea as Kepa missed the 11th penalty for the Blues after each side had scored all ten of their all spot-kicks.
The Reds have now won the League Cup nine times, which is a new record.
Here's how they line-up:
Chelsea: Mendy; Chalobah, Thiago Silva, Rudiger; Azpilicueta , Kante, Kovacic, Alonso; Mount Pulisic, Havertz
Liverpool: Kelleher, Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson, Fabinho, Keita, Henderson, Diaz, Mane, Salah.
