For the second time in three months, Liverpool beat Chelsea in a penalty shootout at football’s Home Ground, lifting the FA Cup and continuing their improbable four-peat. Liverpool is still on course to complete the historic quadruple, having won the FA Cup following yet another Wembley penalty shootout win over Chelsea. A 6-3 shootout victory against Chelsea in the final of Saturday’s penalty shootout produced Liverpool’s first FA Cup win in England since 2006. It kept Liverpool in contention for, possibly, if improbable, a four-trophy haul.
Just like in their League Cup final at Wembley earlier in the year, Jurgen Klopp’s men needed penalties to beat Chelsea and hoist a piece of silverware in the same stadium. The club’s anthem, “You Will Never Walk Alone”, reverberated throughout Wembley, with Liverpool fans serenading Jurgen Klopp’s men. Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool is following in the footsteps of so many outstanding players and teams who wear bright red jerseys.
Up steps, Konstantinos Tsimikas, who sealed Liverpool’s first taste of FA Cup glory at Wembley in three decades, guaranteed that Klopp has now completed the full range of trophies afforded him as Liverpool manager. This time, Liverpool was helped out by Chelsea midfielder Mason Mount’s penalty miss before Konstantinos Tsimikas sealed a penalty shootout victory with his first goal for the club. The shootout was going Liverpool’s way after captain Cesar Azpilicueta missed Chelsea’s second penalty until Sadio Mane missed his chance to win it as his Senegal teammate Mendy saved his shot.
One chance actually came early for Liverpool as Chelsea keeper Edouard Mendy saved Luis Diazs shot. When Edouard Mendy saved the shootout penalty of fellow Senegal international Sadio Mane, with Liverpool’s striker only needed to tap home the winner to secure the FA Cup, for a brief moment, it seemed that Liverpool’s four-trophy ascension could be halted. The extent to which Liverpool has been separated from Chelsea in two finals this season — a miss from a missed penalty taken by a goalkeeper in the League Cup, three missed penalties from 14, and Chelseas failures from two penalties against Liverpool’s one in the FA Cup final — is the real testament to English football right now.
Chelsea and Liverpool out-performed each other in the two finals and in the four games overall over the past 12 months. It is no comfort at all to know Chelsea has now faced Liverpool in two finals at Wembley — and drawn both of their matches — but ended up empty-handed when it comes to the big four trophies on offer this season. It’s not necessarily something you can quantify or define, but it’s a particular footballing element that reminds us all why the sport is known as “the beautiful game.”