It was heartbreak for Chelsea as Liverpool and their duo of Irish stars Caoimhin Kelleher and Conor Bradley climbed the steps of Wembley to claim the League Cup after Virgil Van Dijk nabbed a 118th minute to break the deadlock in London.
While Liverpool grabbed the last-minute goal, it was Irishman Caoimhin Kelleher who was getting all the credit for his trojan work keeping Liverpool in the game.
While his fellow players lauded him, Kelleher showed his true class when he missed out on the MOTM award despite being described by Van Dijk as the 'match winner'.
🛑CAOIMHÍN KELLEHER, WHAT A SAVE 🛑pic.twitter.com/t1K9F51E3u
— Balls.ie (@ballsdotie) February 25, 2024
No thanks to Kelleher, nothing could separate the sides after 90 minutes of football, with the only goal of normal time coming via a disallowed Virgil Van Dijk header. After that the game rolled into extra-time and after 27 minutes looked set for penalties.
However, once denied, Van Dijk made no mistakes the second time and sealed a win for an exceptionally young Liverpool side that featured no less than six academy graduates.
Whoever you support, Van Dijk outjumping Mudryk to score a 118th minute headed winner is pretty goodpic.twitter.com/5KB5ig8VTV
— Balls.ie (@ballsdotie) February 25, 2024
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More League Cup heroics from Caoimhin Kelleher
Despite the goalless affair, pundits and fans alike heaped praise on 25-year-old Caoimhin Kelleher as he held out onslaught after onslaught to keep the Reds in the game.
While Gary Neville described his performance as 'immaculate', Man of the Match winner Van Dijk was convinced the wrong man got the award telling Sky Sports,
He should have got it, he's the match winner
"He's WORLD CLASS" 🤌
VVD full of praise for Caoimhin Kelleher and Liverpool's youth 🤌 pic.twitter.com/uJYdU9LK4y— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) February 25, 2024
While Van Dijk was full of praise for Kelleher, the Cork man clearly thought very highly of his captain as well.
He scored the match winner, he's unbelievable, he's always fit, he's always there for us, he's a great captainand he'll push us on to hopefully win a few more trophies
Today's heroics were Kelleher's second in a League Cup final after his emphatic 2022 performance that took Liverpool and Chelsea to penalties with the Reds eventually winning out.
While it's Caoimhin Kelleher's second League Cup win, it could also be Klopp's final trip to Wembley for silverware this season with the young Irish keeper all praise for the legendary Liverpool manager.
You might not have a good game or be feeling the best about your game, but he's always been positive towards me and instilled such confidence in me that I've always kept that belief in myself. He has given me a lot of belief.
He will be a massive miss. He's the only manager I've had here. It will be a bit strange but the memories will be good to look back on, he's given me my chance here and I won a trophy in 2022 with him and hopefully maybe a few more this season as well.
Caoimhin Kelleher was also joined on the steps of Wembley by Tyrone youngster Conor Bradley who was very unfortunate to get booked for an altercation with Chelsea captain Ben Chilwell.
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