Let it be said, the finals between Chelsea and Liverpool at Wembley offer an exceptional spectacle, of crazy intensity, where the chances follow one another in a frenzy, without however resulting in goals. This scenario, which had already occurred in 2022 during the finals of the League Cup (0-0, 11-10 tab) and the FA Cup (0-0, 6-5 tab) won in a landslide by the Reds, repeated itself almost identically this Sunday afternoon.
But as we were heading towards a new penalty shootout, Virgil Van Dijk emerged from a corner taken by Kostas Tsimikas to score with a header (1-0, 118th), and thus offer a new League Cup to Jürgen Klopp, who can still hope to end his last season at Liverpool with an improbable quadruple (the Reds are still in the running to win the FA Cup, the Premier League and the Europa League).
Two posts, two goals denied
Before this late goal, the two teams had gone blow for blow, carried by 88,868 ecstatic spectators, among whom the Liverpuldiens had created a roar of all devils since the first half of extra time. In an astonishing mirror effect, Liverpool and Chelsea each received an amount, via respectively a header from Cody Gakpo (40th) and a recovery from Conor Gallagher (76th), and were refused, after intervention by the VAR, goals that Virgil Van Dijk (60th) and Raheem Sterling (32nd) thought they had scored.
But above all, during this final during which 43 shots were sent in total, the two teams created a staggering number of dangerous situations. Except that goalkeepers Caoimhin Kelleher (20th, 90+2nd, 111th), for Liverpool, and Djordje Petrovic (58th, 94th, 116th), for Chelsea, took turns making splendid saves.
Disasi and Gusto in difficulty at the start of the match
The match was also marked, particularly in the first period, by intense pressing on both sides, which also resulted in several blunders by Chelsea’s French defenders, Axel Disasi (14th, 16th, 40th) and Malo Gusto (3rd, 20th, 42nd). These two were more prominent afterwards, like their teammates, since the Londoners had a big highlight at the start of the second half of regulation time.
But in the end, Liverpool’s success appears deserved, in particular because the Reds, while they were deprived of a significant number of executives for this final (Alisson, Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Darwin Nunez…), gradually raised their level of play. To the point of being more vehement than their opponents in overtime, under the leadership of replacements who were nevertheless inexperienced at the high level, namely Bobby Clark (19 years old), James McConnell (19 years old) and Jayden Danns (18 years old). This spirited youth therefore contributed to the fact that Liverpool won their tenth League Cup this Sunday, which obviously constitutes a record.