Chronicle Editor
WE had waited two years for this, an English cup final with Wembley absolutely packed.
And the 85 000 fans lucky enough to get a ticket witnessed probably the greatest 0-0 draw there has ever been.
Certainly in a Cup final.
And then we had a truly classic finish with one of the greatest penalty shoots-out the new stadium has seen.
And in the end, Chelsea keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, the penalty king introduced to save the day, hit a terrible penalty to hand Liverpool their first domestic Cup for 10 years.
It was breathless stuff.
James Milner, Fabinho, Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Mo Salah, Diogo Jota, Divock Origi, Andy Robertson, Harvey Elliott and Ibrahimia Konate all scored past Kepa, only got his hand to one.
Chelsea had Marcos Alonso, Romelu Lukaku, Kai Havertz, Reece James, Jorginho, Toni Rudiger, N’Golo Kante, Timo Werner and Thiago Silva and Trevoh Chalobah scored for Chelsea.
Liverpool keeper Caoimhin Kelleher made it 11-10 and then Kepa, looking nervous, delivered that terrible shot high over the bar. Cue mass Liverpool celebrations.
Even before then, it had been an unbelievable game.
Four efforts ruled offside, five terrific stops by Edouard Mendy with one a stunning double save. There were also terrible misses by Chelsea.
Incredibly, Mendy also became the first goalkeeper who was man-of-the-match in a final but still subbed for Kepa.
It was a belting game for the neutrals. Some fans will have wanted Liverpool to win purely for Roman Abramovich’s links to Vladimir Putin.
Others will have been rooting for Chelsea purely because Liverpool’s fans, once again, jeered the national anthem.
Christian Pulisic should have put Chelsea ahead in the sixth minute but he managed only a tame shot at Caoimhin Kelleher after a precise pass from Cesar Azpilicueta.
Kelleher, who got the nod ahead of Alisson in goal, still showed decent enough reflexes to push the ball away but Pulisic should still have buried the chance.
Sadio Mane made a complete mess of a header and got his angles all wrong after a clever ball over the top from Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Chelsea boss Tuchel made the big call and started with Chelsea number one Mendy.
This would have been a massive blow for Kepa Arrizabalaga who had featured in all of the previous games in the competition.
This decision will be enough, surely, for Kepa to ask for a move in the summer but equally, he cannot really complain as Mendy is such a good keeper.
He proved this with an out-of-this-world, stunning save which will not be beaten this season.
First, he got down low to keep out a low drive from Keita, who only started because Thiago Alcantara suffered an injury in the warm-up.
But best of all, after saving from Keita, Mendy displayed brilliant powers of recovery by getting back up in an instant to somehow keep out a close-range effort from Sadio Mane, his Senegal team-mate.
As the chances kept coming, Mason Mount delivered a miss every bit as bad as Pulisic’s earlier as he somehow sent a volley wide.
And at the start of the second half, Mount simply had to score after a brilliant ball over the Liverpool defence by Pulisic. Mount had so much time.
He controlled the ball with his chest and had one more touch before sticking a right-footed shot against the inside of the post with Kelleher again stranded.
A flabbergasted Tuchel fell to his knees, slapping the ground with his fist.
It was exciting stuff although the crowd all winced once Trevor Chalobah fell to the ground in agony after getting Keita’s boot in his groin.
It was a high challenge from Keita and it was remarkable that he was not shown a yellow card when in the past, red cards have been shown for less.
Salah joined the list of players who missed a chance they would normally score.
He lifted the ball over Mendy, who created the chance with a poor goal-kick, yet the shot did not have enough power.
It was heading for the post but Silva cleared.
Yet finally, it seemed we had a goal when Joel Matip was unmarked to head at the far post after Chelsea failed to defend Alexander-Arnold’s free-kick.
Liverpool fans celebrated and they let off a red smoke bomb.
Yet VAR spotted that Van Dijk was offside and interfering with play when Alexander-Arnold took the free-kick.
Mendy delivered more brilliant goalkeeping.
He blocked efforts from Diaz and Andy Robertson and then showed his class again with a stop to keep out a header from Van Dijk.
Kai Havertz had a late strike in normal time ruled out for offside after Timo Werner was offside in the build-up.
In extra-time, Lukaku became the latest player to think he had scored but was ruled offside.
Even though, it looked as though he was being played onside by Van Dijk.
Alexander-Arnold and Havertz went head to head and hilariously, 5ft 7in Harvey Elliott, like a little terrier, barged in between the pair and made things worse by shoving the Chelsea player in the chest.
Havertz then thought he had struck a winner in the second period of extra-time, but for the fourth time in the game, the linesman’s flag was raised.
With 90 seconds left of extra-time, Kepa replaced Mendy. In the Chelsea huddle, Kepa got to grips with the ball.
In the end, though, the Spaniard was the villain.
— Reuters
Online Reporter