Liverpool has defeated Chelsea 11-10 on penalties to win the Carabao Cup final at Wembley on Sunday after the match finished 0-0 following extra-time. Liverpool now won the Carabao Cup for a record ninth time, after the dramatic 22-penalty shootout against Chelsea.
Both sides suffered the frustration of having goals ruled out by VAR for offside and neither was able to break the deadlock in 120 minutes of action.
Liverpool scored all 11 of their penalties but Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, who came on as substitute for the shootout, failed to convert his spot-kick.
Kepa Arrizabalaga, considered Chelsea penalty specialist-keeper, did not save one of Liverpool’s 11 efforts from the spot.
That’s to say the entire team put one past him. Then he sent his own spot-kick, the 22nd of the match, into orbit halfway up the Liverpool end.
And so Jurgen Klopp and his players landed the first domestic trophy of the season, after one of the finest goalless draws it is possible to have witnessed, which Chelsea shaded on good scoring chances, but could not finish.
Mason Mount missed two sitters, Christian Pulisic one and there were four goals disallowed – three for Chelsea, one for Liverpool.
Left to their own devices the players then found the net 21 times before Arrizabalaga – who had been introduced with a minute of extra-time remaining, as Chelsea’s expert in the field – skied his effort to gift the spoils to Liverpool. Tuchel had made the same move in the UEFA Super Cup final at the start of the season, with different results.
The irony is that, until his late removal, Edouard Mendy, Chelsea’s first-choice goalkeeper, had been the best player on the field.
