Liverpool won the Carabao Cup final after a penalty shootout with Chelsea.
Joel Matip appeared to have given Jurgen Klopp’s side the lead in normal time but his headed goal was chalked off by VAR for offside against Sadio Mane.
Extra-time failed to separate the teams, leading to a shootout which was settled by Kepa missing his kick against fellow goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher.
Here were the key talking points from Wembley:
Kelleher repays Klopp’s faith again
Jurgen Klopp’s decision to name Caoimhin Kelleher as an automatic choice for this Carabao Cup final in advance appeared, on the face of it, a slight risk.
Arming Chelsea with the information that they would face Liverpool’s second-choice goalkeeper afforded their opponents more time to plot against him.
Or so it seemed.
True to form, Kelleher produced another sterling display in this competition by denying the west Londoners sporadically across 120 minutes at Wembley.
The only times that the reigning European and world champions breached the Republic of Ireland internationa’s net, they did so from offside positions.
In a tense shootout, too, Kelleher held his nerve despite failing to save any of Chelsea’s first 10 penalties as he scored the Reds’ decisive 11th spot kick.
Only Kepa Arrizabalaga will know whether the 23-year-old standing tall led him to skying the all-important spot kick against his opposite number.
What is clear, however, is that Kelleher is no longer one for the future but very much the here and now as Anfield’s production line keeps churning.
Reds rediscover taste for silverware
Let it never be said that the League Cup matters little to Liverpool.
The joyous celebrations inside Wembley that greeted their eventual shootout victory, on the pitch as much as off it, comfortably disproved that fallacy.
Even when fielding line-ups which would not be considered maximum strength, Klopp’s side have treated this competition with utmost respect.
In various guises, it has been a staple of the club’s glittering honour roll for the best part of more than four decades; stretching all the way back to 1981.
Granted, it may not be the ‘bread and butter’ which Bill Shankly once termed the league championship yet still holds its own place of reverence at Anfield.
No team has won this trophy more than Liverpool, who ended a decade-long wait to recapture as they made it an unlucky-for-some 13th triumph.
That winning feeling pic.twitter.com/SMlD1lx2oX #LFC #CarabaoCupFinal
— Liverpool FC news (@ClickLFC) February 27, 2022
More pertinently it heralded a return to the winning feeling of two years ago, when a long-awaited Premier League title was lifted during a global pandemic.
At that time, Liverpool were already considered ‘champions of everything’ as simultaneous holders of English, European and global football’s top honours.
If reclaiming this silverware becomes a pathway to more illustrious ones, as it did in the 1980s, then Klopp’s approach will have an incalculable worth.
Fourth time a charm for Klopp
Liverpool’s latest trophy triumph meant more than just the general euphoria it generated among players and supporters alike when all was said and done.
For Klopp, the celebrations were made all the more delectible by the fact that it heralded marked the exorcising of a personal ghost at the national stadium.
Including the 2019 Community Shield encounter with Manchester City, the German had suffered defeat in each of his three prior outings at Wembley.
Two of them were with Liverpool, in that traditional season curtain-raiser as well as the 2016 League Cup final against their North West coutnerparts.
Klopp rarely needs an excuse to indulge in the festivities when his imperious side have added another major honour to their growing list of achievements.
But ending a win-less streak on the capital’s main stage at the fourth time of asking gave added motivation to savour this latest addition to the cabinet.