League Cup | Liverpool beat Chelsea 11-10 on penalties

(Wembley) Liverpool won the first major trophy of the season in England by beating Chelsea on penalties (0-0, 11-10 ap. pens) in the final of the League Cup, Sunday at Wembley, in end of a hair-raising finale.

Despite the great spectacle and the multiple opportunities on both sides, the epilogue was very cruel, especially for the Blues goalkeeper, Kepa, who came in specially for the penalty shootout in place of Edouard Mendy, and who precipitated the defeat of his club by missing the 22^and session attempt.

Thomas Tuchel had warned that he would not make a feeling in the goal and, despite the very good course made by the Basque in the cages during the competition, he had preferred Mendy at kick-off.

He had also, once again after Lille in the Champions League on Tuesday, left Romelu Lukaku on the bench, opting for the light cavalry, in the absence of injured Hakim Ziyech, with Mason Mount and Christian Pulisic behind Kai Havertz.

The match was taken by the throat by Chelsea who stifled the first ten minutes, probably the time it took the Reds to adapt to the withdrawal of Thiago Alcantara, injured in the warm-up, and replaced by Naby Keita.

But soon enough, Liverpool secured control of the ball, Chelsea seeming to be satisfied to try their luck against, as their starting eleven seemed to predispose them.

Boxing match

Suspicious, the two teams took time to create really dangerous chances, Sadio Mané, on a header (19^and) and Mohamed Salah on an indirect free kick (21^and), being unusually clumsy.

But the frantic pace of the game never wavered and Mendy fully justified his status as Chelsea’s lucky charm in the final by performing an exceptional double parry on a strike from Keita from sixteen meters, followed by a recovery from Mané at the six meters he managed to deflect overhead (30^and).

He was again decisive in a face-to-face with Luis Diaz, sparkling on Sunday (75^and), or on a corner that Diaz and Joël Matip could not convert (85^and).

At the very start of additional time, he again relaxed beautifully on his left to fend off a header from Virgil van Dijk from a corner (90+1).

Sometimes he was saved by a return from Thiago Silva, on a soft ball from Salah (64^and) and by the VAR which detected that van Dijk had influenced the action in an offside position, on a goal denied to Matip (69^and).

But we must not believe that Chelsea only suffered the match which was a real boxing fight between two opponents with different styles but with the same desire to seek the hard blow.

Lukaku, so close to redemption

Thomas Tuchel must still wonder how Mason Mount was able to miss his two huge chances, a volley seven meters from goal which did not find the target (45^and) and a shot, after a start in the back of the defense, which skirted the goal after hitting the left post of Caoimhin Kelleher, preferred until the end to Alisson by Jürgen Klopp (49^and).

We could even have had a very nice story of redemption to tell if the astute deviation into a heel of Romelu Lukaku, finally entered 20 minutes from the end of regulation time, in place of Mount, had not been repelled by a Kelleher very attentive, or if a goal had not been canceled by VAR for a millimeter offside during extra time.

It therefore remained only the shots on goal to decide between the two teams, and Tuchel, who had never lost a final with Chelsea, will undoubtedly regret his missed poker move, when everyone had achieved a no- fault so far.

Liverpool won his first trophy of the season and his first League Cup with Klopp.

He succeeds Manchester City, which had won the four previous editions, and the Reds again become the only record holders for victories in the competition with 9 trophies against 8 for the Citizens.