Last season was the first time in the European competitions that all four finalists were from the same country. Liverpool on their 6th Champion League while Chelsea on their second Europa League faced each other in Istanbul.
After losing 4-0 to Manchester United at the weekend, Frank Lampard’s Chelsea made three changes with N’Golo Kanté returning. American Christian Pulisic started his first game for Chelsea alongside Oliver Giroud.
Jurgen Klopp made four changes from the 4-1 victory over Norwich City in the Premier League with Joe Gomez replacing Trent Alexander-Arnold and replacing Georginio Wijnaldum with veteran James Milner.
The other two changes were at the front three with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain starting his first competitive game in over a year with Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane. Klopp had one eye on the weekend fixture by rotating and resting players. Liverpool’s new signing, goalkeeper Adrian, made his first start for Liverpool with Alisson Becker still out injured.
Oliver Giroud scored the first goal after a brilliant assist by Pulisic in the 36th minute and Liverpool’s defence seemed to be shaky. However, the reds equalised after half-time when substitute Roberto Firmino assisted Sadio Mane in the 48th minute.
For the next 20 minutes, Liverpool had most of the possession and seem likely to score however, Christian Pulisic was denied a goal due to an offside ruling.
The game went into extra time with both managers were not keen about playing extra time. Sadio Mane scored in the 98th minute which should have ended the game but Adrian fouled Tammy Abraham in the box to allow Jorginho to equalise in the 101st minute.
The game went to penalties with Chelsea’s goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga almost saving two penalties but the final spot-kick by Tammy Abraham was saved by Adrian allowing Liverpool win their 46th trophy, becoming the most successful English team.
Photo by Fatih Yürür on Unsplash
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!