Liverpool win League Cup on Van Dijk's dramatic ET goal

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Virgil van Dijk scored within the 118th minute in opposition to Chelsea on Sunday to win the League Cup for Liverpool and ship the primary trophy of Jurgen Klopp’s farewell season.

Van Dijk’s header settled a wildly entertaining remaining that by some means ended goalless after 90 minutes at Wembley Stadium.

Not like the earlier two finals between these two sides – which Liverpool gained on penalties after 120 minutes of goalless soccer – they created sufficient possibilities to muster a transparent winner. Every workforce had targets disallowed for offside, had hit posts, and produced goal-line clearances. Goalkeepers Djordje Petrovic and Caoimhin Kelleher mixed for 19 saves – lots of them spectacular.

The 1-0 win retains the Reds in rivalry for a continental quadruple and denies Chelsea a primary title since Todd Boehly’s consortium took over in Might 2022. It additionally robbed Chelsea supervisor Mauricio Pochettino of a primary title in England.

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It additionally comes as Liverpool take care of a large damage disaster. Klopp fielded three youngsters within the remaining and had one other two on the bench due to accidents to Mohamed Salah, Diogo Jota, Darwin Nunez, Dominik Szoboszlai, Trent Alexander-Arnold, and Alisson.

The final time a workforce had three or extra youngsters on the sector in a League Cup remaining was in 2007 when Arsenal misplaced to Chelsea with Theo Walcott, Cesc Fabregas, Denilson, and Armand Traore within the beginning XI.

Chelsea have now misplaced six consecutive home finals courting again to the 2018-19 season. It is one other black mark in opposition to a membership that is spent greater than £1 billion since Boehly’s group acquired it from Roman Abramovich in a £4.25-billion deal.

“In further time, it has been Klopp’s youngsters in opposition to the blue billion-pound bottle jobs,” former Manchester United defender Gary Neville stated on Sky Sports activities, per Agence France-Presse. “Particular managers do particular issues. He’s a monster supervisor.”

Klopp has gained eight main trophies since being appointed Liverpool supervisor in October 2015. And it could not finish there: His workforce leads the Premier League desk, is within the fifth spherical of the FA Cup, and has superior to the spherical of 16 of the Europa League.

Liverpool are rebounding nicely from final season, once they completed outdoors of the Champions League locations in fifth and didn’t win a trophy.

However Sunday’s remaining was removed from easy. Liverpool misplaced midfielder Ryan Gravenberch to damage early within the first half after Chelsea’s Moises Caicedo unintentionally stepped on his ankle. And not using a pure substitute, Klopp threw on right-back Joe Gomez and moved Conor Bradley, who had already been deputizing in that place, into Salah’s common slot on the suitable wing.

Liverpool additionally survived quite a few goalmouth scrambles and heaved a sigh of aid within the thirty third minute when the VAR dominated Raheem Sterling’s purpose offside.

Van Dijk then thought he had put the Merseyside outfit 1-0 up after 60 minutes when he steered in a robust header from Andrew Robertson’s free-kick. However the VAR caught Wataru Endo standing in an offside place earlier than liberating Van Dijk with a choose on Chelsea defender Levi Colwill.

Liverpool’s Cody Gakpo and Chelsea’s Conor Gallagher hit the publish as each groups vied for an elusive purpose. It will keep 0-0 till Van Dijk made good with the sport’s forty second try on purpose.