Liverpool Beat Chelsea Again on Penalties to Reach Carabao Quarter-Finals
Seven Lights
Liverpool beat Chelsea 6-5 on penalties Wednesday at Anfield after a 1-1 draw in the Carabao Cup fourth round, extending Chelsea’s peculiar misery in this contest to five consecutive shootout defeats.
Morgan Rogers put Chelsea ahead from the penalty spot in the 40th minute, and Cody Gakpo answered from the mark three minutes later. The match offered few clear chances either way before the shootout, as it has so often between these clubs.
Chelsea had lost the preceding four penalty contests against Liverpool — the 2007 Champions League semi-final, the 2019 UEFA Super Cup, and the FA Cup and League Cup finals of 2022. The fifth fell apart in the same key. Emmanuel Emegha had the chance to win it in sudden death but was denied by Giorgi Mamardashvili. Liverpool then missed the chance to end it themselves: Kostas Tsimikas blazed over with victory in sight, after Ryan Gravenberch and Valentin Barco had also failed to convert.
It fell to Joe Gomez to settle it. The long-serving defender, who has never scored for Liverpool, struck the first shootout penalty of his Anfield career into the top corner past Mike Penders. Wesley Fofana then lifted Chelsea’s attempt high into the Kop, and the tie was over. Liverpool face Bournemouth — the old club of their manager Andoni Iraola — in the quarter-finals.
Xabi Alonso, whose side came into the night after a home defeat by Tottenham in the league, called the result “a small setback because it is probably the least important competition for us.” He said Chelsea “played with courage” and turned attention to Saturday’s league match against Manchester United. His decision to leave the winger Estêvão unused on the bench throughout, with João Pedro injured, drew criticism in the English press.
For Liverpool, the evening carried the familiar texture of this fixture: little at stake in open play, everything from eleven yards, and the same ending for the fifth time running.