In fairytale fashion, Liverpool FC have won the EFL (Carabao) Cup. It was a story of four halves as they took it to extra time, scoring in the 118th minute of the game to win it. This victory is not only made special by the fact that this is legendary Liverpool FC manager Jurgen Klopp’s last season with the club as he enters retirement, but also because it marks a new era and bright future for Liverpool, with 6 of the 17 players who played in the final being Liverpool academy graduates still under the age of 21, two of whom were on the starting squad.
But with every winning team, there is also a losing one, and in this case, it was Chelsea. They have defied the odds, leaving football fans and experts alike astonished by how they managed to lose such a promising final match that they have fought so hard to get to. On paper, it seemed like Chelsea couldn’t lose. A squad worth over 1 billion British pounds comprised of some of the biggest up-and-coming names in football, squared against a Liverpool team plagued by injuries, with over half of their starting players sidelined.
With a stronger team, many believe that Chelsea should have started attacking Liverpool from the beginning and put them on the back foot in order to gain the advantage, especially in extra time, to avoid going to penalties. Instead, well-seasoned Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino employed some eccentric tactics by opting to sit back and try to benefit from the counterattack. Ultimately, this approach proved unrewarding as Liverpool got their well-deserved winning goal through captain and world class centre-back Virgil van Dijk two minutes before, what would have been, the penalty shootout.
Chelsea fans are outraged by the loss, while on the other hand, Liverpool fans are thrilled with how their team managed to emerge victorious. Although they were missing world-class players due to injury, including Allison Becker (goalkeeper), Trent Alexander-Arnold (defender), Diogo Jota (forward), Darwin Nunez (forward), Dominik Szoboszlai (midfielder), and arguably most importantly, Mohamed Salah (winger), they managed to put together a team, put in a strong performance, and win a cup final. This win is a major statement from Liverpool, not only to Manchester City, whom they are striving to snatch the Premier League title from, but it also shows a bright future for the club and the pathway from the academy into the first team. This win proves that even in times of crisis, Liverpool have the squad depth and ability to get the job done.