A goalless 90 minutes and extra time ironically encapsulated one of the most enticing finals the League Cup has ever seen.
Joel Matip saw his goal chalked out with 67 minutes on the clock, as Virgil Van Djik was offside interfering in the build-up, tussling with Chelsea’s Reece James.
Liverpool’s high line has been criticised all season with teams getting in behind and creating big (offside) chances. However, Liverpool’s offside trap is a well-oiled machine, and this was proved in the final. Kai Havertz appeared to put Chelsea 1-0 with 13 minutes left of the 90, but substitute Timo Werner was deemed well offside in the build-up.
Chelsea’s stumbling record signing Romelu Lukaku came off the bench and appeared to make his mark in the 98th minute. Lukaku seemed to hold his run for an age, but his flailing arm pointing for the through ball is what saw him offside by what must have been centimetres.
The Chelsea players and staff were learning now not to celebrate too early, and this was evident when Havertz slammed the ball into the bottom corner of Caoimhin Kelleher’s net, before he kicked the Wembley turf in frustration at the offside flag being tauntingly lifted.
Offside goals wouldn’t be the only action inside the first 120 minutes. Van Djik’s bullet header would require a leaping Edouard Mendy save, before the AFCON winning goalkeeper would show his class producing a triple save to snuff out Luis Diaz, Andy Robertson and Matip.
Mason Mount’s record at Wembley is left to be desired. He lost the Championship play-off final with Derby, successive FA Cup finals and the Euro Final against Italy. Mount had two huge chances either side of half time to lift this curse, but all he could manage was a skewed shot wide of Kelleher’s post in the first half and a scuffed off-balance shot bobbling into the Irish keeper’s post just after half time. Thomas Tuchel wasn’t best pleased on the Chelsea technical area.
The real drama came just before the 120 minutes were up, when the outstanding AFCON winning Mendy was subbed off for Arrizabalaga. The Spanish keeper is dubbed a penalty saving expert and Tuchel showed his faith in the £70 million man.
Fabinho’s Panenka was jaw-dropping and Van Djik showed his nerve by slamming the ball into the side netting, to the side where Kepa was arrogantly standing close to.
Kepa would fail to save a single penalty
20 successfully scored penalties later, Kelleher would step up to slam the ball into the roof of the net against his counterpart Kepa. The man brought on as a penalty saving expert, would now have to score one to keep Chelsea in the tie. He instead ballooned it straight over the bar into the Liverpool section to pure scenes of jubilation from the men in red.
Kepa was brought on to win Chelsea the game for an AFCON winning goalkeeper, instead, he lost it.
