Topic: ⚽ FOOTBALL: EFL Carabao Cup 2023/24 Season (English Football League) (Read 1220 times)

Liverpool had 99% of their first choice starting eleven unavailable because of injuries therefore to beat a Chelsea team that had near full first choice starting eleven was commendable. Klopp will leave Liverpool in good shape because the players coming through the youth ranks of today will be part of their first team tomorrow.

I hope Chelsea owners and fan have patience with Pochettino, he will make them challenge for the title again but he needs time.

But what makes this victory feel even more exciting for Liverpool is that they achieved it in less than ideal conditions.
Liverpool came in having lost many players due to injury, namely Alisson Becker, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Curtis Jones, Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez and Diogo Jota.
With minimal options, Liverpool must rely on young players. Harvey Elliott and Conor Bradley, both just 20, started.
With this victory we can see where Chelsea's level is, with young players who have fantastic prices.
It turns out that this is not a guarantee of being able to beat Liverpool and become champions of the Carabao Cup. Liverpool really deserves to get this trophy.

Once again congratulations to Liverpool! Hopefully this trend will continue in the EPL until the end of the season.

At one stage Liverpool were missing 10 first team players therefore they had to play the game with a reserve team full of kids therefore surprised most people watching the game by winning it.

Having said that Chelsea statistically were also a very young team but for some inexplicable reason they failed to do push for a winner, instead doing very little when extra-time began and that was when Liverpool were playing most of the attacking football. The game would have gone to penalties if Van Dijk had not scored 4 minutes from the end of the game.

Klopp celebrated that win with a lot of comfort and satisfaction, he personifies Liverpool therefore they will suffer without him when he will not be there next season. I think it is obvious Salah will also start the next season playing his football in the  Saudi Pro League therefore Liverpool will have to cope without their two main stars.

Congratulations to Liverpool!
I expected them to win but not in the extra time, for sure not in the last two minutes before penalties and Chelsea disappointed me for not scoring any goal.
Unfortunately I couldn't follow the whole game and Klopp should be happy for this achievement before leaving Liverpool.
For Chelsea, that defeat could serve as an alert to wake them up from their low level right now..

I have to give congratulations to Liverpool too. Klopp knew he had a good chance to try to unsettle Chelsea and win the game even though he fielded a team of inexperienced young players along a few senior regular players. The way Van Dijk connected with the ball to guide his header to the goal was perfect and the goalkeeper had very little chance of saving it.

I hope Liverpool use the win as a catalyst to try to win as much as they can this season because it will be a great way for Liverpool and Klopp to part ways.

As for Chelsea, I hope they get past the disappointment of the loss today and start doing what they can to start climbing up the Premier League table with the intention to start next season with a fresh mindset. I am sure Pochettino is the right man for the manager role at Chelsea and hopefully next season he will improve their team.

Congratulations to Liverpool, it was a good achievement, they can still achieve more things like the Fa Cup, the European League and the Premier League, but the fact that at least Liverpool won this tournament is already something very motivating. Talking about today's game, in my opinion it was a game without much quality of play, at least in terms of both teams attacking a lot and scoring a lot of goals, I know that in finals games it's difficult to see many goals, but in this game Both teams had problems in attack, in Liverpool's case it was understandable, because Liverpool has many good players injured and if they had been playing today, the game would have gone in a different direction, something like Liverpool's victory within the 90 minutes.

Luis Dias had a great opportunity that could have scored a goal, but he had no creativity when he shot, on the other side Chelsea also wasted opportunities, but in Chelsea's case it is serious because that is their best squad, a weak squad, With this squad, Chelsea will not be able to win the premier league, this season this tournament is one of the few things that Chelsea could win, now they only have the fa cup and if they are eliminated, then this season they will have nothing left. They won't even get a place in the Champions League next season. The strangest thing is that even with the opening of the market last month I didn't see any major signings made by them, perhaps you are satisfied with the current situation they are in

Both teams are desperate to win the game. Chelsea need their first trophy under their new manager Pochettino and under their new owner. Liverpool want to win to give their manager Klopp a wonderful goodbye before he leaves his job at the end of this season. I had it wrong, they are in to extra-time with less than five minutes left before it goes on to penalties.

The big team duel is again presented now in the final round of the Carabao Cup, today Liverpool and Chelsea will try their best to be able to present their first title of the season to their fans, if we look at the performance of the two teams in the league of course Liverpool is much better than Chelsea but  We must remember of course the rise of Chelsea in the last few matches of course it is something that Liverpool must be wary of , I don't think it will be easy for both teams to win the match because after all a final will increase the morale and motivation of the players to play better, in my opinion this final match will end in a penalty and it looks like Chelsea will be able to get the carabao trophy this season.

This Chelsea vs Liverpool game is really going to be a fascinating encounter because this is the game that defines Chelsea season, so they will actually give their all just lift this trophy, moreover their performance against the bigger teams has really been good compared to their outing against the smaller teams.

Though Liverpool are the bookmarks favourite for this one due to their current form and their standing at the top of the premier league chart, but they actually need to be at the top of their game if they must come out of this game victorious.

I don't support any of the teams above but I think Liverpool will win at least 2 - 1 against Chelsea.
The odds are in favour of Liverpool but I wasn't based on that. In fact, I find Liverpool performance better, Klopp is superior as a manager than Pochettino and it is his last year with Liverpool so I think he will try to have a last achievement since English Premier League title isn't obvious when you have Manchester City at your back.
I know how important this game for Chelsea too but still think Liverpool will win in the main time.

The game will kick-off at 3pm on Sunday 25th February 2024. Klopp will leave his role as Liverpool manager at the end of the season and Liverpool are still playing for trophies (Premier League, Carabao Cup and FA Cup as well as Europa League) and winning some or all would be a brilliant way for Liverpool to say goodbye to Klopp.

On the other hand, Chelsea have not found consistency under their manager Pochettino but the job was intense and it was always going to take time to find a balance. Pochettino has never won a trophy as manager in the Premier League and is desperate to get his first. This is their only possible trophy this season therefore the players will go out and try to win it.

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Anybody else agree with me? The game will without extra-time or penalties. It will end on 90 minutes: Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool

Middlesbrough was leading in aggregate just for 15 minutes then by the end of the first half the goals difference went up to 3 goals then no surprise by the end of the game Middlesbrough got a heavy damage. No serious attack, barely reaching the goalie. Now Chelsea has to face Liverpool which passed thanks to aggregate after their draw against Fulham 1 - 1.
I think Liverpool is better than Chelsea regardless of the results of these two matches. The final game will be held in Wembley after a month from now.

RESULT:

Chelsea 6-1 Middlesbrough

The first semi-final second leg was played yesterday and Chelsea ended it with an emphatic 6-1 victory at Stamford Bridge. Middlesbrough were losing 6-0 but managed to get a consolation goal before the final whistle. Overall, Chelsea make it to the final with a 6-2 aggregate win.

The second semi-final second leg takes place this evening between Fulham and Liverpool (which is 1-2 after the first leg).

These are the semi-final games second leg fixtures:

Tuesday 23rd January
Chelsea vs Middlesbrough
Agg: 0-1

Wednesday 24th January
Fulham vs Liverpool
Agg: 1-2

Even though Middlesbrough managed that memorable win in the first leg, I think most would expect Chelsea to win the game on the night by a couple of goals and go through to the final.

As for Liverpool, they came back from a goal down to win at Anfield but I am expecting Fulham to cause an upset here and win the game. If they win 1-0 the away goals will not count therefore extra-time will be played and Liverpool should have enough energy in their players to get them to the final.

I did not post an update with the semi-final result from yesterday or a reminder for the game being played today. Chelsea had a difficult match travelling away for the first leg of a semi-final fixture but they should have won, they had many chances to score yet Middlesbrough managed a 1-0 win:

Tuesday 9th January: Middlesbrough 1-0 Chelsea
Wednesday 10th January: Liverpool vs Fulham

I will update the thread after game ends today. Fulham are currently winning the game 0-1 after Willian gave them the lead with a 19th minute goal.

The first leg of EFL Cup semifinal games will start tomorrow with Chelsea facing away Middlesbrough and a day after Liverpool will host Fulham.
I think most people will go with Chelsea and Liverpool victory for sure.
Middlesbrough didn't win any of their games against Chelsea and Liverpool last defeat against Fulham was almost three years ago.

I believe the final game will be played between Chelsea and Liverpool but honestly it will be a surprise to see Chelsea winning unless Liverpool suffered from many injuries and red cards!
Chelsea barely standing still in English Premier League

If that was the plan it failed because West Ham could not get a goal as they were beaten by 1-0 by Liverpool therefore these are the semi-final fixtures:

Tuesday 9th January: Middlesbrough vs Chelsea
Wednesday 10th January: Liverpool vs Fulham

On paper, you would presume Chelsea and Liverpool will play the final but Middlesbrough and Fulham are not there to make up numbers, they also believe they can get to the final. Well done to all four teams for getting this far.

If Chelsea won a trophy in the first season Pochettino became manager, it will give them a massive boost for next season. Liverpool are playing excellent this season therefore if these two teams made it to the final it will be a good game to watch.

The semi finals draw is just as in the image above.

I already see a Liverpool v Chelsea finale in the EFL Cup to tell the truth. Liverpool won this cup in the 2021/2022 season however the last time for Chelsea was in the 2014/2015 season. It would be more valuable for Chelsea if they put an end to this break. Apart from that Chelsea would really make use of a title in a difficult season like this. But I don't know if they can beat Liverpool. I wouldn't expect Klopp to rotate the lineup for a finale like that in the end. 

Liverpool 1 - 0 West Ham United in the first half.
West Ham United didn't impress at all in this first half, basically no control of the ball, no serious attempts to not say no attempts at all. They are already one goal down against Liverpool which was dominating in this first half.
Liverpool are better, winning most of the time against West Ham United and today it seems that the result will not be different. I don't know if West Ham United will play seriously in the second half but their best chance might be to pick a goal to get the draw and drive Liverpool to play with them penalties, then everyone will try their luck.

There is one game taking place this evening Wednesday 20th December

Liverpool vs West Ham United

The way West Ham United have been playing there is more than a slim chance that they could manage an upset at Anfield but the way Liverpool are playing it seems difficult. For West Ham to win, they would have to be playing at their best while Liverpool would have to make a series of disastrous errors. It could in a hard fought 2-1 home win.