On Sunday, Liverpool and Chelsea were involved in an epic clash when they compete for the glory of the Carabao Cup in the Wembley Stadium. It still remains one of the best final ever seen in ages, both in club and international competitions.
(Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
The match produced no goal but it had everything you could ask for in a football match. A close contest that either side would feel they should have won it in normal time and one that made the neutrals feel any other opponents against either of the two will be on the losing side on the night.
Chelsea had the ball in the back of the net on three different occasions and each was rightly ruled out for offside while Liverpool would felt more hard done by the referee as Virgil van Dijk was condemned for obstructing play while Sadio Mane assisted Joel Matip and the goal was later disallowed by the VAR.
There were also lots of big misses mostly by Chelsea’s English Midfielder, Mason Mount. While there were also Goalkeeper brilliance in both ends as the likes of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Romelu Lukaku were denied their names on the score sheet.
It was a contests that either side will disagree that they were the second best as both teams play some scintillating football, and the contest was eventually settled on penalties.
Interestingly, it took 22 penalties to settle the game with Liverpool being crowned winners after Kepa Arrizabalaga skied his effort from 12 yards to deliver The Reds’ first ever domestic cup under Jürgen Klopp.
However, there were lots of positives for each side to take away from the match and Premier League fans will also feel the level at which the teams turn up in big games will give them the edge in the Champions League and continue to held high, the already rejuvenate pedigree of the English top-flight in Europe’s top club competitions.
Liverpool beat Chelsea to win the Carabao Cup. Photo Credits: Liverpool
Recently, Premier League clubs have been dominating the Champions League with Liverpool and Chelsea winning it either side of a Bayern Munich triumph in 2020. Liverpool defeated fellow Premier League club, Tottenham Hotspur in the final in 2019 and it was the same with Chelsea in 2021, as they beat Manchester City 1-0 in Porto.
Although no Premier League side managed to reach the semi finals in 2020 but that could be taken as one of the negative impacts of the Covid-19.
This season in the competition, three of the four teams representing England emerged winners of their group with defending Champions, Chelsea finishing behind Juventus in their group. Three of the four can also be said to have secured their place in the quarters after winning their first leg games by fine margins.
The only side that failed to win was the struggling Manchester United, but they did got a positive result in a 1-1 draw away to Atletico Madrid at Wanda metropolitan Stadium in Madrid, and the club will hope they can get the job done when they play at Old Trafford in the return leg.
Manchester City are the only English team in the competition yet to win it while the others have won it on multiple occasions. City however boast an experienced manager in Pep Guardiola, who will also be hopeful of delivering the silverware that has eluded him since leaving Barcelona.
City are huge favourite to win the title this season and adding that to the current form of most of the other English teams in the competition, the English dominance of the Champions League that is here already might be here for good.
Author: Kehinde Hassan Afolabi
