🏆 Liverpool defeat Chelsea in extra-time to win EFL Cup | OneFootball

Liverpool have won a record 10th EFL Cup, defeating Chelsea 1-0 in extra-time at Wembley.

Scorers: Van Dijk 118′

Despite hopefulness regarding the fitness of Liverpool trio Mo Salah, Dominik Szoboszlai and Darwin Núñez, they were all ruled out of the matchday squad through injury, while Thiago Silva was among the notable Blues absentees.

It took until the 20 minute for the first significant chance and Chelsea wouldn’t have wished for it to fall to a better man when the ball broke Cole Palmer’s way inside the six-yard box but he was somehow denied from point-blank range by Caoimhín Kelleher.

Liverpool were then dealt yet another injury blow midway through the opening half when Ryan Gravenberch was forced off on a stretcher, replaced by Joe Gomez, following a hefty tackle from Moisés Caicedo.

Shortly afterwards, Raheem Sterling had the ball in the net for Chelsea, only for the goal to be disallowed for an offside call on Nicolas Jackson that appeared to be very controversial.

Liverpool were then denied by razor-thin margins before half-time when an Andy Robertson cross was met by the head of Cody Gakpo but his downward effort came back off the post.

On the hour mark, it was the Reds’ turn to be frustrated by an arguably even more contentious VAR decision when Virgil van Dijk appeared to have headed them in front, only for a lengthy pitchside check to result in the goal surprisingly being ruled out for offside.

The game continued to eerily mirror earlier events as after both traded close offside calls, it was then Chelsea’s turn to strike the woodwork when Conor Gallagher was denied by the post from Palmer’s pass before the Englishman went on to spurn a late one-on-one, Kelleher again coming to the Reds’ rescue (as he did in injury-time after a late melée) to ensure it somehow stayed scoreless after 90 minutes.

In the 118th minute, Van Dijk finally got his and Liverpool’s goal, nodding a header home from Kostas Tsimikas’ corner.

It proved to be the winner as Jürgen Klopp’s goodbye tour got its first trophy.