This is the most special trophy I have won in 20 years,” said an excited Jürgen Klopp just after winning the tenth Carabao Cup for Liverpool yesterday, ending with a miraculous team.
The German coach, along with captain Van Dijk, who scored the saving goal in the 118th minute, was the protagonist at Wembley for the ‘red’ fans, who are starting to say goodbye before the summer arrives, when he will leave, by his own will, a club to which he has given everything.
Klopp’s new ‘miracle’ was achieved with a team with 11 absences. Without Alisson, Salah, Diego Jota, Alexander-Arnold, Szoboszlai, Darwin Núñez, Thiago Alcántara, etc… but with Klopp, the only indispensable one. And playing with six Academy ‘red’ boys who are not over 21 years old: Danns (18); Clark (19); McConnell (19); Elliott (20); Quansah (21); and Bradley (20).
Since Klopp’s arrival at the ‘red’ bench (2015), the team has achieved these milestones in nine seasons: they were Premier League champions (the first) after 30 years of drought; Champions League winners (the sixth) after 14 years of drought; FA Cup winners (the eighth) after 16 years without doing so; UEFA Super Cup winners after 14 years of drought; Carabao Cup winners after 10 years of drought; Community Shield winners after 16 years without doing so; Club World Cup winners for the first time in their history (2019); and, with yesterday’s win, they surpassed Manchester City (10 to nine) and became the most successful winners of the League Cup.
The coach also had the humility to divert his focus and put it on goalkeeper Kelleher, yesterday’s hero and hero two years ago in this same Carabao final against the same Chelsea: “What a great performance, what maturity! We have the best goalkeeper in the world [Alisson] and we have the second best goalkeeper in the world.”
Klopp promises not to stop here. He can still go to Wembley for one more final: the FA Cup – they play the fifth round against Southampton this Wednesday – and another in Ireland: the Europa League - they play the round of 16 against Sparta Prague – a tournament whose final is played at the Dublin Arena.
Will JK reach 10 tournaments won for the ‘reds’? For now, he has eight well distributed: Premier 19-20; Co
