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Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
Liverpool and Chelsea travel to Wembley to battle it out in the Carabao Cup final.
CHELSEA VS. LIVERPOOL
| Sunday, February 25th|
Carabao Cup Final | Wembley
3PM GMT/10AM EST
Liverpool and Chelsea match up again in the Carabao Cup Final on Sunday. The last time they met at Wembley was in 2022, when Caoimhin Kelleher etched his name into the history books by scoring the winning penalty in an epic penalty shootout. Honestly, on the day, I was like 80% thankful to him for winning the trophy and 20% thankful for just ending the game already.
With the Jürgen Klopp goodbye tour in full swing, this is the first chance for Liverpool to give him another trophy before he moves on. It will also earn Liverpool Football Club their 10th League Cup trophy, a nice, even number for the trophy case.
They’re coming off the back of three successive victories which have kept their place at the top of the Premier League table. And while out scoring and coming from behind to grab those three points is impressive, the fact that they have conceded at least one goal in their last seven matches continues to be a concern.
Kelleher has earned the right to be in the goal during this final, since he help get the team there. However, even if he hadn’t, first choice goalstopper Alisson Becker is one of many Reds’ players who is currently out injured.
Mauricio Pochettino’s Chelsea lost to Liverpool 4-1 at Anfield, a result the manager was not happy with. In an interview in the lead up to this Sunday’s match, Pochettino lamented the ‘bias’ refereeing during their last confrontation. You see, that’s why his side conceded four goals. He urged the referees not to bow to the pressure of giving Klopp a good parting gift and to instead judge the match impartially.
10th place Chelsea are also coming into this game off the back of a strong three game unbeaten streak, the only blemish to which was a 1-1 draw with Manchester City last weekend. Though I can promise that any frustration the Blues’ fans felt at conceding to City in the 83rd minute was felt tenfold by Liverpool fans.
Predicted Liverpool Lineup (4-3-3)
Kelleher; Bradley, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Endo, Mac Allister, Gravenberch; Elliott, Gakpo, Diaz
Excuse me a moment. I need to find out if there’s a word limit for these previews. OK, it seems like we’re good to go over the Liverpool injury list. Here we go: Thiago Alcantara, Curtis Jones, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Alisson, Ben Doak, Stefan Bajcetic, Joel Matip, and Diogo Jota. Additionally, Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez, and Dominik Szoboszlai are all in doubt and need to be assessed.
Cody Gakpo has scored four League Cup goals so far, the second most in the competition. He also scored another goal in the league on Wednesday for good measure. It seems clear that he’ll be in the starting XI, along with Kelleher, to finish what he began.
Conor Bradley will get his chance on the right wing to play in the biggest game of his young career due to Alexander-Arnold’s knee injury.
For Chelsea, Carney Chukwuemeka, Lesley Ugochukwu, and former Liverpool target Romeo Lavia are all unavailable.
What the Managers Had to Say
Jurgen Klopp: “The result we had here [a 4-1 league win over Chelsea at Anfield last month] doesn’t help, of course we have to play the game again and it’s like firing the opponent up slightly.”
Mauricio Pochettino: “When we played at Anfield I think too many decisions … not one key decision was for us. Two penalties were not given. Duels, 50-50s, always for another colour. Always red. I want to be treated in a fair way.”
The Officials
Referee: Chris Kavanagh. Assistant Referees: Mark Scholes and James Mainwaring. Fourth. Official: Tim Robinson. Reserve Assistant Referee: Wade Smith. VAR: John Brooks. AVAR: Marc Perry
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