Izuchukwu OkosiChelsea became the first side in English football history to lose six consecutive domestic Cup finals as they suffered a 1-0 defeat against Liverpool in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final at Wembley Stadium.
The West London side were beaten finalists in the Carabao Cup (EFLCup) final in 2019 and 2022 and also in the FA Cup in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
The Reds’ captain Virgil van Dijk scored the decisive goal in the 118th minute of extra time after both sides ended the contest goalless in 90 minutes.
The Dutch defender thought he had scored in the 60th minute of the game only for the VAR to rule out his effort due to offside.
Liverpool have thus become the first club to win the Carabao Cup 10 times following their victory over Mauricio Pochettino.
Liverpool looked like the better team in the context of the game but Chelsea twice went close to breaking the deadlock.
Kelleher produced a superb save to deny Cole Palmer from close range before Raheem Sterling had a goal ruled out for a tight offside call.
Djordje Petrovic made 10 saves for Chelsea – one more than Liverpool’s Caoimhin Kelleher.
Liverpool were missing Thiago Alcantara, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dominik Szoboszlai, Alisson Becker, Diogo Jota, Joel Matip and Darwin Nunez due to injuries on Sunday.
The Reds’ injury nightmare was exacerbated when Ryan Gravenberch was forced off the field on a stretcher in the 28th minute with an ankle problem following a challenge from Moises Caicedo.
Outgoing Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp began the extra time with three teenage prodigies introduced on the pitch in Jayden Danns, James McConnell and Bobby Clark.
Danns came close to scoring his first ever senior goal when his headed effort was tipped over by Chelsea keeper Petrovic at full stretch albeit failed to keep out Van Dijk’s goal.
Liverpool have now won two more EFL Cup titles than Manchester City and four more than any other club.
Clubs with the most EFL Cup titles are as follows:
Liverpool, 10 titles (1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1995, 2001, 2003, 2012, 2022 & 2024)
Manchester City, 8 titles (1970, 1976, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, & 2021)
Manchester United, 6 titles (1992, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2017 & 2023)
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
