LONDON: Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk powered house a header in further time as his facet beat Chelsea 1-0 within the League Cup closing on Sunday to clinch a record-extending tenth title within the competitors and crown Juergen Klopp’s closing season in cost with silverware.
Van Dijk rose excessive above his marker to go a nook again throughout aim and into the far nook within the 118th minute, sparking wild celebrations among the many Liverpool supporters massed at that finish of Wembley stadium.
With the membership main the Premier League and nonetheless within the FA Cup and Europa League, Liverpool’s followers will hope the most recent triumph supplies the launch pad for extra trophies in Klopp’s swansong marketing campaign, with the quadruple nonetheless inside attain.
The Liverpool supervisor, who mentioned final month he would go away after eight years on the finish of the season, will take specific satisfaction in a victory achieved in testing circumstances, with the membership dealing with an damage disaster that pressured Klopp to place his religion in a number of children who didn’t let him down.
“All the young boys on the pitch, in extra time. It’s incredible, I’m so proud of the team,” skipper Van Dijk mentioned.
“Intense game for both sides, they had chances we had chances. Amazing. First trophy as Liverpool captain, it’s all for the fans so let’s enjoy it.”
Chelsea supervisor Mauricio Pochettino’s hopes of igniting the season after a tough begin to his reign had been dashed, with the Blues turning into the primary workforce ever to lose six successive home main finals in English soccer historical past, with the final three of these defeats coming in opposition to Liverpool.
It was a well-recognized final result for the Argentine coach whose time in England has seen him go shut on quite a few events with out touchdown any silverware.
It was the second time Klopp had obtained the higher of him in a serious closing, after Liverpool beat Pochettino’s Tottenham Hotspur facet within the Champions League in 2019.
Pochettino, tasked with knitting collectively a squad assembled at large expense, will likely be disillusioned his facet didn’t get the higher of Liverpool’s younger outfit even when his workforce path the leaders by 25 factors within the Premier League and had been soundly overwhelmed 4-1 at Anfield in January.
INJURY PROBLEMS
Sunday’s closing was a charming encounter and either side had what they thought had been opening targets dominated out for offside, with Raheem Sterling denied by the linesman’s flag for Chelsea earlier than the break and Dutchman Van Dijk’s header after the interval chalked off in a controversial name by the VAR.
Liverpool overcame a prolonged damage listing, with the likes of Diogo Jota, Trent Alexander-Arnold, goalkeeper Alisson and Curtis Jones, key forwards Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez and midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai just lately becoming a member of quite a few long run absentees on the sidelines.
They ended the sport with 19-year-olds James McConnell and Bobby Clark and Jayden Danns, 18, on the pitch – the trio having barely a handful of first workforce appearances between them.
Liverpool’s damage issues had been then compounded when Ryan Gravenberch was taken off on a stretcher within the first half after Moises Caicedo caught his ankle with a careless, mistimed deal with that had Klopp seething on the touchline.
Liverpool had been then handed a reprieve by the lineman’s flag when Sterling tapped house from Nicolas Jackson’s cross, a decent name that VAR took time to verify.
Cody Gakpo headed in opposition to the publish from Andy Robertson’s cross in the direction of the top of the half and that was as shut as Liverpool got here till Van Dijk thought he had put them in entrance within the sixtieth minute.
The centre again outjumped Ben Chilwell to go house however the VAR noticed that Wataru Endo was offside and deemed considerably harshly to be interfering by blocking a Chelsea defender when Andy Robertson’s free kick was crossed into the field.
Chelsea’s Conor Gallagher, who spurned quite a few different probabilities, had the chance to win it within the eighty fifth when he bore down on aim however his shot was excellently saved by Liverpool’s stand-in keeper Caoimhin Kelleher, who was very good all through.
Harvey Elliott pressured an excellent save from Djordje Petrovic with 5 minutes of additional time remaining because the Liverpool ahead headed powerfully in the direction of the underside nook however his effort was cleared off the road by the keeper.
Yet it didn’t matter as moments later, Van Dijk headed the ball house to ship the Liverpool supporters into raptures.
(This story has not been edited by News18 workers and is printed from a syndicated information company feed – Reuters)
