Tuchel’s goalkeeper grip failed – Liverpool won the fireworks final after penalties – VG

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In a jumble of chances, offside goals, VAR cancellations and tears already for kick-off, the thriller as a result of its own natural dramaturgy had to be decided after an unusually long penalty kick competition. After almost three hours of final play, Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson was able to raise the league cup trophy while the gold confetti sprinkled over Wembley’s grandstand.

Thus, German Jürgen Klopp finally overcame the English national arena. There he has lost his finals with both Borussia Dortmund (2013) and Liverpool (2016), and he had to wait a long time and see a lot before his first trophy taken at Wembley was in the box.

For the league cup final in 2022, the football match that would never end was: 0-0 after 120 minutes, 5-5 on the first 10 penalties, 5-5 also on the next 10 penalties – before the almost unbeatable end: Goalkeeper against goalkeeper. There, unknown Caoimhin Kelleher, bought for just over 350,000 kroner from even more unknown Ringmahon Rovers, took the rat on Kepa Arrizabalaga – the world’s most expensive goalkeeper.

– This was relatively exciting. When you know the history of these two teams, you know that it will not be 8-0 to either of us. We walk on each other. They start best, then we are best, then they are best again, then it’s us, sums up an excited Jürgen Klopp to Liverpool TV channel.

– It could have been 5-5, he adds.

Towards the end of the second extra innings, Chelsea’s usually tactically savvy manager Thomas Tuchel did what will be remembered as a mistake: He took out Edouard Mendy after a cannonball match and put Kepa in for the penalty shootout. The Spaniard has been on his way to the final and been the “cup goalkeeper”, but at Wembley the 750 million purchase from 2018 was worthless:

He did not take any of Liverpool’s 11 penalties, not even from goalkeeper Kelleher, and in the end Kepa blew the last attempt of the match high above goal.

– It’s me who makes the decisions. We do not know what would have happened if we had left Mendy on the field. Do not blame him, blame me, Tuchel explains at the press conference afterwards. He says Kepa trains more on penalties than Mendy and that this has been done before.

– It is tough to miss the only penalty, but it is not he (Kepa) who is to blame, Tuchel continues.

Klopp did the opposite of the compatriot in what was both the German coach profiles’ 10th big final: The Liverpool boss left the star Alisson on the bench and kept the 23-year-old cup keeper Kelleher in the eleven.

The Irishman has admittedly tried his hand against Chelsea before in his 16 A-games over three years in the Liverpool kit, but has otherwise mostly played against Shrewsbury, Cardiff and Midtjylland. And even though it is a distance from Herning to the Wembley final and 90,000 in the stands, Kelleher proved brave and mature enough for the task already after five and a half minutes: Chelsea offensive Christian Pulisic could finish alone after a perfect Cesar Azpilicueta pass , but the 23-year-old was on the spot and rescued.

Liverpool had to do without midfielder Thiago, who had to leave the starting line-up after getting into trouble during the warm-up. He cried when the final was blown, but was able to wipe away the tears as his teammates were about to take the initiative after Chelsea’s good start.

Trent Alexander-Arnold started hitting with the passes, Luis Diaz with the dribbles – and that midfielder Sadio Mané did not outsmart compatriot Edouard Mendy after half an hour was unbelievable.

Near Keita narrowly missed a field crawler from outside the 16-meter, Mendy was down and parried. The return rolled like a gift for Mané, and suddenly the Liverpool offensive was face to face with the goalkeeper he stood shoulder to shoulder with in the previous final appearance: When the duo were the main characters for Senegal’s historic title in the African Championship penalty drama three weeks ago. Mendy threw up his arms on Mané’s attempt and got the ball over.

Liverpool continued to lead, but Chelsea’s counterattacks came with stitches. Academy product Mason Mount was inches on the wrong side of the post when Kai Havertz played him up to a mega-chance just before the break, and when the same Mount got a near identical opportunity right after, he had apparently not adjusted the shot foot enough under the wardrobe rest. This time he hit the inside of the post – and it was still goalless.

Then everyone thought that Liverpool had finally cracked the final zero. Alexander-Arnold turned a free kick over the field, Mané headed back across the penalty area, and in the blind side of Chelsea stopper Thiago Silva, great Joel Matip snuck forward. Liverpool’s Cameroonians headed the set piece in the net, the Wembley roar could finally be heard, but did not manage to drown out the VAR room’s message to referee Stuart Attwell that the situation had to be double-checked on a monitor.

There he came to the conclusion that Matip’s stopper partner Virgil van Dijk was a little too rough with Reece James as the ball went and that it affected the game enough that it was a criminal offside. It did not help that van Dijk’s personal video judgment via Wembley’s big screen came to the opposite conclusion. Duels against the referee lose even huge van Dijk, and the Dutchman actually became too weak when he got Liverpool’s last chance in regular time. The midfielder’s header after a corner was stopped by a tiger leap by Mendy.

Chelsea’s last got Romelu Lukaku. The Chelsea striker was on the bench again from the start, but barely got half of the second half from Tuchel and could hysterically become the match winner on a just suitably committed heel flick. But Kelleher was just as screwed as in the opening, and Klopp’s goalkeeper choice stopped the ball with a leg parade.

If that finish seemed uninspired, Lukaku fired on full cylinders in the first extra inning. In an offside situation so marginal that only VAR could have wanted to consider it, he spun away Ibrahima Konate and knocked tonight’s third non-counting ball into the net. The assistant referee followed the heavy flag principle and waited, while the video room’s relentless marking of the lines also placed the Belgian offside.

It was repeated for Kai Havertz in the second extra inning, who also had a goal canceled for offside, the German’s second for the day and the fourth in the match. Thus, it was a penalty kick.

PS! Also three years ago, Kepa Arrizabalaga was a kind of main character in the league cup final. That time he had to be replaced out in the final mot Manchester City – who also then went to the penalty shootout. But he refused to obey the then Chelsea coach Mauricio Sarri, stayed on the field, stood in the penalty shootout – and also lost that time.

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