10 months ago
188 James Milner has shared that Kostas Tsimikas actually had the hump with his former teammate in the wake of Liverpool winning the FA Cup in 2022.
It was Kostas Tsimikas who wrote his name into Liverpool folklore at Wembley nearly two years ago now. The Greece international scored the penalty in the shootout against Chelsea which handed Jurgen Klopp’s men the trophy.
When the left-back stepped up, the score was 5-5. Cesar Azpilicueta and Sadio Mane had both failed to score from 12 yards before the shootout went to sudden death. And with Mason Mount also missing, Tsimikas went forward with a chance to wrap it up.
James Milner says Kostas Tsimikas was annoyed after Liverpool won 2022 FA Cup final
The tension would have been too much to bear for some. And that appeared to be the case for James Milner, who instead decided to turn his back to the penalty and face the supporters at Liverpool’s end of the stadium.
Tsimikas did score. And as it turns out, Milner actually had nothing but confidence in his teammate. However, speaking on Football’s Greatest with Jeff Stelling, Milner noted that the £12 million defender was not best pleased when he saw what he had done for his penalty.
“I’m just trying to enjoy and take it in, I felt that more towards the end with Liverpool when we won trophies, just taking things that you wouldn’t think about before and watch the boys’ reaction when we won the title, standing at the back of the room and watching the Chelsea game and watching everyone in front of me and how they were reacting, that was special. And you wouldn’t do that, but I was fortunate enough to have done it before so I just wanted to enjoy,” he said.
“When we won the cup at Wembley and watching the fans’ reaction when Kostas scored the penalty, and Kostas had the hump with me because he thought I couldn’t watch his penalty because I had no faith in him. But I wanted to watch the fans’ reaction when it went in.”
An amazing signing for the Reds
In many ways, that moment helps sum up why Milner was so important to Liverpool during his time at Anfield.
He scored his own penalty. But he realised in that moment that it was going to be even more special to see how the fans reacted when Tsimikas found the back of the net.
He was coming towards the end of his peak when he signed. But he went on to keep playing for the Reds until he was 37. And he left having made over 330 appearances for the club in all competitions, playing a key role in a number of amazing moments.
Certainly, it has to be considered one of the finest free transfers of the Premier League era.
The post 'Had the hump': James Milner says he really annoyed £12m Liverpool player with what he did in the FA Cup final appeared first on TBR Football.
