This is what it came down to in the end. This is what it came down to in one of the most dramatic domestic football finals Wembley has ever seen. On one side, Chelsea’s billion pound squad, the collection of record signings and extravagant busts and individuals who fit all the number-crunchers’ algorithms but do not play as a team.
And on the other side, a bunch of kids and a couple of giants. Kids from Rainhill and Warrington and Newcastle, who were in the team because Mo Salah, Darwin Nunez, Trent Alexander-Arnold and a phalanx of Liverpool’s best players were out injured.
Kids so young that Alan Shearer remarked he had played against the dads of some of them. Kids who made this look like the team Liverpool might turn out in the FA Youth Cup. Kids who stepped up when their club needed them.
Kids like Conor Bradley, Bobby Clark, James McConnell, Jayden Danns and Jarell Quansah. Kids who stepped up. Kids who were made of the right stuff. Kids who did themselves and their club proud and defied all the odds to beat the World Cup winners and walking pay-packets on the other team.
And in a story reserved for the very best of football dramas, the kids beat the billion pound squad. Liverpool beat Chelsea. Their young players and their giant of a captain, Van Dijk – the man of the match and the match-winner - delivered the sternest rebuke yet to a Chelsea team that spent money like it was throwing mud at the walls and is still paying the price.
Liverpool won the Carabao Cup in the dying minutes of extra time against Chelsea after captain Virgil van Dijk's header secured a dramatic 1-0 victory in the final
Van Dijk ran off to celebrate with Tsimikas as Liverpool took the advantage in the match that had just minutes left on the clock in extra time
Van Dijk found space at the front-post to nod Kostas Tsimikas' corner delivery over Chelsea's defence and into the bottom corner
Liverpool celebrate winning the first trophy of the season after overcoming a Chelsea side that appeared to be lacking in belief
Reds manager Jurgen Klopp looked emotional at full time as Liverpool sealed victory and a first trophy of the season
There were times in the second half, as Liverpool’s manager, Jurgen Klopp, deprived of a host of his senior players, threw more and more youngsters into the fray when it seemed that Chelsea would overrun them.
And yet even with the two most expensive players in British transfer history – Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez – at the heart of their midfield, they simply could not break the spirit of their callow opponents, who embodied all that is best about the adventure and the faith in youth of Klopp.
The preponderance of young players in the Liverpool team felt symbolic, too. Klopp is leaving Anfield in the summer and the abandon with which he trusted to youth here was a sign of his intent to bequeath the club the healthiest of futures. They have one trophy under their belt now, with three more left to play for. The Quadruple is still on.
It was a Liverpool great, Alan Hansen, who once said ‘you can’t win anything with kids’. Sir Alex Ferguson and the Class of 92 proved him wrong once. On Sunday at Wembley, against a Chelsea side who have become the poster boys for the emptiness of conspicuous consumption, Liverpool’s youngsters proved him wrong again.
So if you ever want to bottle what we call the magic of the Cup, just watch a re-run of this epic. Watch how Liverpool’s kids kept fighting. Watch how Virgil van Dijk marshalled them and led them. Watch how the captain saw one goal harshly disallowed and came back and scored again to win the game deep into the second period of extra time.
This was a victory for team spirit over the emptiness of the cheque book. It was a victory for brilliant management over the complacency of the Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly. A billion spent, only to be beaten by kids. This was the new Chelsea’s greatest embarrassment yet. And there have been a few.
As Klopp burnishes his legend, so Mauricio Pochettino, the Chelsea manager, still searches for his first trophy in English football. This was a crushing defeat for him and for the Chelsea project. Chelsea play Leeds in the FA Cup fifth round on Wednesday, knowing that defeat will bring about a premature end to their season.
There are, worryingly, signs that they have not yet learned any humility in the midst of their mediocrity. In one newspaper article on Sunday morning, it was revealed they had constructed ‘modelling based on underlying performance factors that suggests they should be fifth in the Premier League, rather than tenth’.
Blues boss Mauricio Pochettino was denied the chance of winning his first trophy in England as Chelsea slumped in extra time
Conor Gallagher wasted a host of great opportunities for Chelsea in the second half as he was continually denied by Liverpool second-choice goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher
Ryan Gravenberch was carried off on a stretcher in the first half and joins Liverpool's already-hit group of unavailable players
Really? I bet they paid a pretty penny for that modelling. And, of course, it means precisely nothing. Actually, poor Chelsea may have started the Carabao Cup Final in tenth place in the Premier League but they finished it in eleventh. Without kicking a ball in the competition. Wolves’ win over Sheffield United took Gary O’Neil’s side, too, above Pochettino’s team.
Despite being so severely depleted, Liverpool started more brightly. Alexis Mac Allister stung the hands of Djordje Petrovic with a long-distance drive and then, when Axel Disasi slipped on the edge of the area, Cody Gakpo fed Luis Diaz and his fierce shot brought a fine save from the Chelsea goalkeeper.
Liverpool swarmed all over Chelsea and forced them into errors. Disasi, so impressive in Chelsea’s recent draw with Manchester City, was especially culpable. Liverpool’s young team restricted Chelsea to the occasional counter attack.
But Chelsea still posed a threat and midway through the half, they should have taken the lead. Conor Gallagher curled a ball in from the right and as Raheem Sterling tried to control it, the ball bounced off Conor Bradley into the path of Cole Palmer a few yards out.
It looked like a certain goal. Palmer is a nerveless finisher and he made good contact with the ball with his left foot. Caoimhin Kelleher flung himself to his left and blocked the shot brilliantly with his left arm before it was hacked clear. Palmer put his head in his hands in disbelief.
19-year-old Bobby Clark was one of four Liverpool youngsters to be brought on by Klopp as the Reds sought a winner
Gallagher and his Chelsea team-mates missed the opportunity to secure the Carabao Cup despite a number of chances
Chelsea's Cole Palmer was denied what could have been a winning goal by a brilliant save from Kelleher as Chelsea created chances
Chelsea were lucky not to be reduced to ten men when Moises Caicedo buckled the ankle of Ryan Gravenberch with a late tackle that left the midfielder writhing in pain. Gravenberch was carried off on a stretcher. Caicedo escaped without even a booking. Bradley was moved further forward to a position on the right of Liverpool’s front three.
The game had opened up now. Both teams stretched their opposing defences and, after Sterling had had a goal ruled out for offside, Gakpo glanced a cross from Andrew Robertson against the outside of a post. The tempo of the match was quickening.
There were interesting individual battles everywhere, not least the struggle between Joe Gomez, Gravenberch’s replacement, and Sterling on Liverpool’s right flank. The two men have previous after they were involved in an altercation on England duty. This time, they kept their emotions in check.
Gravenberch joined in celebrations after the whistle on crutches and with his right-foot in a protective boot
Liverpool thought they had taken the lead after an hour when Virgil van Dijk rose majestically to meet a free kick swung deep to the back post by Robertson. Van Dijk’s header beat the dive of Petrovic and nestled in the far corner and Liverpool’s players celebrated riotously in front of their fans.
But as red smoke from flares turned the Wembley air red, VAR intervened. Replays showed that Wataru Endo had been in an offside position when the kick was taken and blocked Levi Colwill, impeding the Chelsea defender’s ability to mark Van Dijk. To Liverpool’s consternation, the goal was disallowed.
Chelsea, understandably, were buoyed by their escape. They responded by coming close to taking the lead themselves when a corner was flicked on at the near post and it flew to Disasi one yard out at the back post.
It felt as if Disasi need only touch it to score but the ball was slightly behind him and at knee height and as he tried to turn it in, it ballooned up off his thigh and sailed in a lazy arc into the grateful arms of Kelleher.
Liverpool were tiring. Palmer was growing in influence and he slid a pass into the box that Gallagher met beautifully with a delicate glance towards goal with his right foot. Kelleher watched it hurtle past him but instead of finding the far corner, his flick rebounded off the face of the post to safety.
Chelsea pressed for the winner. Palmer, again, was the prompter. He advanced down the right and saw Gallagher sprinting clear on the left. Palmer cut inside and found Gallagher with a perfectly-weighted pass. It felt like Chelsea’s moment but Kelleher hared off his line and smothered Gallagher’s shot.
Gallagher curled another shot just wide after and Klopp decided he had to refresh his side’s tiring legs. The Liverpool eleven started to resemble its youth team. Jayden Danns, James McConnell and Bobby Clark all came on. Alan Shearer observed that some of them were so young, he had played against their fathers.
Chelsea were overrunning them now and there were times when Liverpool’s goal was under siege. There was one spell, as the match headed for extra time, when Klopp’s side made a succession of quick-fire blocks. First, Christopher Nkunku’s shot was blocked, then Kelleher stuck out a boot to turn another effort from Malo Gusto away and finally, Gallagher’s bouncing shot fell into the goalkeeper’s hands.
Chelsea goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic impressed with some great saves in the final before eventually coming undone
Liverpool's Luis Diaz had more shots than any other player in the match but wasn't able to turn chances into goals
And so, yet again, a final between these two teams bled into extra time. Liverpool summoned another effort from somewhere. Petrovic tipped a header from Danns over the bar and Harvey Elliott should have scored when he ran to a pass from Diaz but pulled his volley into the side-netting.
Liverpool fashioned one more chance five minutes from the end when Elliott rose alone at the back post and speared a header low down at the feet of Petrovic. Petrovic got down to it brilliantly and kept it out with his left foot before clutching the ball at the last minute.
And then, with two minutes left, Van Dijk rose again. Kostas Tsimikas curled in a corner from the left and Van Dijk got to it ahead of Mykhailo Mudryk and glanced it beyond the despairing reach of Petrovic.
Chelsea should have won the match in the 86th minute as Gallagher was put one-v-one with Liverpool's second-choice goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher who smothered the England international before he could get a proper shot away.
The 24-year-old wasted another chance just moments later when he sent a shot from the edge of the box sailing into the stands.
Van Dijk was one of the only experienced Liverpool players remaining on the pitch and the captain headed in the late winner
Pinball football threatened to break the resolve when Chelsea fashioned a series of efforts in stoppage time and one such move resulting in Kelleher somehow ending up with the ball in his hands.
Into extra time and Liverpool's youth faced their biggest test yet, injuries including a mid-game problem for Ryan Gravenberch forced Klopp to use his energetic bench as Bobby Clark, James McConnell, Jayden Danns and Jarrell Quansah all came on.
Chelsea had the experience and chances to break the deadlock but lacked the required composure. Van Dijk did the opposite as he popped up in the final minutes of extra time to score from a late corner.
The Reds captain surged to the near-post and met Kostas Tsimikas' delivery that was guided into the bottom corner.