Last minute heroics from Virgil van Dijk saw Liverpool beat Chelsea in the Carabao Cup final.
Jurgen Klopp’s swansong season will have at least one trophy now, as his side won a topsy-turvy encounter at Wembley Stadium 1-0.
Both sides had chances early, with Chelsea goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic called into action twice in quick succession to deny Alexis Mac Allister and Luis Diaz.
Then at the other end of the pitch, Liverpool’s Caoimhin Kelleher produced an unbelievable stop from point-blank range to keep out a shot from Cole Palmer.
Both Raheem Sterling for Chelsea and Van Dijk later had goals ruled out by VAR for offside.
Image: Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk scores the winner. Pic: PA
Finally, with two minutes left of extra-time a breakthrough was found. Van Dijk rose into the air from a corner to nod in at the Liverpool end, sending the Reds into bedlam.
Reacting to the win, Klopp said what happened at Wembley was “absolutely insane”.
“These things are not possible,” he said.
“Besides, we had a team, a squad with an academy full of character. It’s unbelievable what happened here. I’m so proud that I could be part of it. Wow.”
Image: Jurgen Klopp celebrates the win over Chelsea. Pic: PA
Liverpool had named a line up missing 11 first team players including Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez and Dominik Szobozslai, and their bench featured six players aged 21 or younger.
By contrast Chelsea recently went on a billion-pound spending spree to rebuild their squad, with Trevoh Chalobah on the bench their only player in the squad remaining from the two teams’ 2022 final meeting.
Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino said: “It’s always difficult when you lose a final because you have the chances. It’s one game.
“We lost in the last minute of the game. So painful. Now we have to take the positive things, keep going, push and use this type of game to learn and do better and only be positive.”
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