Sometimes a little bit of grit is worth its weight in silver, especially during a moment of great beauty. On Wednesday night, Jurgen Klopp felt a great sense of satisfaction when his team, Liverpool, won its 10th cup final in nine seasons with much difficulty.
Without a doubt, this was a difficult evening on the banks of the Thames, the kind of semifinal match that would not go away. And Fulham deserves a lot of credit for keeping it going and then making it explode.
There was no wilting on Marco Silva’s part, even after they gave up to Luis Diaz so early in the evening, widening their aggregate deficit to two. Never give up.
They attacked, identified gaps, struck a post, and Issa Diop scored the goal. With 14 minutes remaining in the two-leg match, the score has changed from 3-1 down to 3-2. Fulham threw caution to the wind, setting off a thrilling sequence of mishaps and nervousness.
In the grand finale, there were moments when it seemed like they could actually pull it off, and there were also moments when Klopp looked absolutely terrifying. flammable.
Liverpool booked their place in the Carabao Cup final after a frenetic match at Craven Cottage
Luis Diaz scored after 11 minutes as Liverpool made a flying start to the semi-final
But here’s the thing about Liverpool, or more accurately Liverpool 2:0, if we acknowledge that Klopp has skillfully reorganized his team: they are resilient. They are hardy. They are strong dancers and resilient enough to pull through on a night like this when many of their main members were missing and they were clearly not performing at their best.
As a result, on February 25, they will play Chelsea for the Carabao Cup at Wembley, which fits in well with their current position atop the Premier League.
It will take time to determine whether Mo Salah’s absence hinders progress on those two fronts and whether a persistent vulnerability to counterattacks develops into a more serious problem. In terms of the latter, it has definitely surfaced this season, and Fulham has been the most successful team in taking use of the space behind their full-backs. Who knows, perhaps one aspect of Silva’s legacy for a successful season will be the establishment of a strategy for attacking Liverpool.
But, of course, that is just speculative. Speaking of more serious matters, we can confidently state that, aside from the injuries that may require him to rotate his team a little deeper than ideal, Klopp’s campaign could not be going much better.
In this instance, it meant making four changes to the team that defeated Bournemouth: Alisson, Ibrahima Konate, Curtis Jones, and Diogo Jota were replaced on the field by Caoimhin Kelleher, Jarell Quansah, Ryan Gravenberch, and Cody Gakpo. The fact that Andy Robertson was sitting on their bench for the first time since he suffered a shoulder injury 13 weeks ago was possibly more noteworthy.
It is a testament to Klopp’s ability to reconfigure this team and the potential of Conor Bradley in his defense that Robertson’s absence hasn’t been felt more keenly. However, they were put to the test here, most notably in the two minutes leading up to Liverpool’s opening goal, when Fulham had three quick opportunities.
Issa Diop levelled for Fulham late on but Fulham couldn’t find the second goal they needed
Liverpool were jubilant after reaching their first final of the season as they chase four trophies
Two of them were fast counterattacks down the other team’s flanks that suggested Liverpool’s weaknesses, and the other was a volley that Joao Palhinha skied but should have scored. Klopp appeared displeased with Gomez’s haphazard set-piece marking during that subsequent opportunity, and with good reason.
After the caution, Liverpool tightened up and took the lead after 11 minutes, helped by some shoddy goalkeeping and a lackluster defense. Quansah started the motion by pinging 50 yards across the field and into Diaz’s path. At that point, Castagne made a grave error in his assessment of the ball’s trajectory and lost his aerial duels with Diaz, allowing the striker to close the distance and go for the goal. Two deflections gave his strike extra bite, but Bernd Leno took an incredibly long time to reach his near post.
Although Silva was hurt, his team was still in the game as seen by two decent opportunities for Raul Jimenez and Willian. There was danger here, as Jimenez had also had a flimsy claim for a penalty turned down.
Jurgen Klopp appreciated the moment, saying: ‘Never in life should you take for granted that you are part of a football team that can win trophies’
Marco Silva was proud of his players but disappointed they couldn’t reach Fulham’s first Carabao Cup final
Nevertheless, Liverpool was mostly in control, with Harvey Elliott producing a lovely flurry of deft touches in the midfield and Diaz having a second goal rightfully disallowed for offside. His delivery and control near the conclusion of the half nearly set up a beautiful assist for Darwin Nunez, but Gravenberch managed to elude his colleague and squander the opportunity.
When Diaz and Gakpo had opportunities early in the second half, a similar refrain might have been made because their misses reduced the amount of risk involved. That was demonstrated when Harry Wilson skinned Conor Bradley, who had been so excellent in his first-team breakthrough, and more pointedly when Diop bundled the equalizer off his thigh following an error by Kelleher. Andreas Pereira rattled the frame after that.
Wilson forced a nice save from Kelleher as Fulham got back into the game, and Willian kept appearing to be just one touch away from getting through the defense. Liverpool was not as remarkable as they were. However, they are in the final and won’t give a damn.