5 Things Learned: Chelsea 0-1 (AET) Liverpool | Carabao Cup Final

Chelsea lost 1-0 against Liverpool after extra-time in the Carabao Cup final, with Virgil van Dijk scoring the only goal of the game.

Van Dijk’s 118th-minute winner stung The Blues, but they could not complain after their terrible extra-time performance.

Mauricio Pochettino’s side will instead be looking back on the missed chances throughout normal time, with too many to count.

Here are five things Absolute Chelsea learned from the defeat to Liverpool.

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1) Similar build-up issues to Anfield

Despite Chelsea starting the game nervously, they grew into the game but continued to make similar mistakes to gift Liverpool momentum and chances.

They experienced how The Reds could punish a team that made sloppy errors in the build-up when they lost at Anfield last month but seemed not to learn from that in the first half, with several different players gifting Jurgen Klopp’s men the ball in dangerous positions.

2) Wembley offside call against Liverpool… again

Chelsea were looking dangerous on the transition in the first half, and that’s exactly how they found the back of the net, with Jackson crossing low to Sterling.

However, it was Déjà vu for The Blues, who experienced another extremely tight offside call at Wembley against Jurgen Klopp’s men, with Jackson judged to be in an offside position when the ball through was played.

3) Chelsea rue missed chances

After the defeat, all the Chelsea players will be able to think about is how many times they could’ve taken the lead.

There were countless chances for The Blues on the break throughout, but the theme throughout the season continued, with a lack of clinical finishing evident from Pochettino’s side.

Conor Gallagher, Enzo Fernandez, Nicolas Jackson, Cole Palmer. Take your pick. They all missed great chances throughout the game. And it seemed like they all missed one after the other towards the end of normal time.

4) Tragic extra-time approach

Despite those missed chances, Chelsea were still getting into great positions and were in control of the game before the whistle blew for extra time.

Liverpool had a bunch of kids on the pitch and looked vulnerable, but The Blues failed to land a glove on them in the last 30 minutes.

Whether or not it was fitness, or tactical, Chelsea’s extra-time approach was mystifying and the ultimate reason they finished as runners-up.

5) Pochettino made the wrong move

One major contributing factor to Chelsea’s struggles in extra-time was Nicolas Jackson’s exit from the field. He was causing the Liverpool backline major troubles throughout.

He was replaced by Christopher Nkunku, who could not replicate similar issues and instead wanted the ball to feet more.

The change from Pochettino seemed to ruin Chelsea’s in-behind approach that worked so well during periods of the game earlier on.