Carabao League Cup Final Preview
A wholly biased Liverpudlian Red looks forward to Wembley
A wholly biased Liverpudlian Red looks forward to Wembley
I was too young to have any memory of Liverpool’s first appearance in a League Cup Final in 1978 and the controversial defeat in a Cup Final Replay at Old Trafford against their era adversarial foes in Nottingham Forest. I do distinctly remember watching the live night time coverage 3 years later when the Reds finally triumphed for the first time in this competition in a Cup Final Replay, and this time at Villa Park and against Londoners West Ham United. The year was 1981 and Kenny Dalglish’s unbelievable cross shot volley across his chest and into the far corner of Phil Parkes’ West Ham net continues to astonish me four decades later and over 40 years since a then 9 year old laid out his red and white checkerboard Liverpool silk scarf in front of the television that night. This first win was followed by 3 further consecutive Cup Final wins in this competition as in 1982 Ronnie Whelan’s double secured the Reds triumph over Tottenham Hotspur before he scored that beautiful curling winning goal a year later against Manchester United. 1984 saw a further Cup Final Replay, this time against neighbours Everton after a drab and dour first ever all Merseyside Wembley Cup Final. Graeme Souness’ beautiful turn and shot from outside the penalty area was the only goal on a Maine Road Cup Final Replay night in Manchester, and secured Liverpool’s 4th consecutive triumph in a competition they would only finally lose in at the Semi-Final stage in 1985, and that crazy own goal laden defeat to Queens Park Rangers on a glorious night for the blue and white “Hoops” from QPR.
The beautiful three handled Georgian Urn that’s otherwise known as the League Cup trophy was absent when Charlie Nicholas of Arsenal broke my 15 year old heart in 1987 when I watched the then re-named Littlewoods League Cup Final in my dear old Mum’s kitchen before sulking all afternoon and making my then girlfriend’s life a moody misery. Today’s rebranded Carabao League Cup has previously been known under the sponsorship of the Milk Marketing Board (Milk Cup), Rumbelows, Coca-Cola, Carling and Worthington’s as well as the short lived sponsorship of Littlewoods, and that long haired Scottish brute “Champagne Charlie” breaking my teenage heart.
Regardless of the sponsor’s name upon the ribbons tied to the three handles of the trophy, I have long held an affinity for this much maligned of mid-season Cup Final triumphs. For Liverpool’s history in the 12 Finals they’ve played naturally, but also for the two-legged cup ties that lead all the way to Wembley for a one-off Cup Final, and for the irrational fact that season after season lower league teams often reach the latter stages of the competition or shock Premier League teams over the two legs, with one of them played out in their more modest and the unbecoming surrounds, for a modern Millionaire footballer.
And I’ve always had a romantic soft spot for that beautiful Georgian three handled urn!
I went to watch live Liverpool games sporadically in the mid 1980’s, then far more regularly as I left school in the latter part of that decade before spending as much disposable income as I could lay my hands on when I first tumbled into proper, honest to goodness work in the early 1990’s. So I was lucky, by virtue of attending a lot of games between the early 1990’s and 2012, to attend the last four League Cup Finals whereby the Reds have lifted that beautiful trophy and held aloft on those occasions by luminaries such as Ian Rush, Robbie Fowler, Sami Hyypia and most recently in 2012 by Steven Gerrard. I missed the 2005 heart breaking defeat to Sunday’s opponents Chelsea, and Gerrard’s unfortunate own goal that proved to be the winner in a 5 goal Final that began a lengthy rivalry between Managers Rafa Benitez and Jose Mourinho. I also missed the most recent defeat in a Final, 2016, and the current era defined nemesis, Manchester City. I’ve missed a handful of other Finals since seeing Steven Gerrard lift that magnificent trophy at Wembley ten years ago and despite holding out against hope that a ticket will miraculously fall my way for Sunday, I’ll be missing this one too.
Alas.
12 Finals. 8 victories.
In addition to the 4 already noted it was the 1995 Coca-Cola Cup when the Reds defeated a gallant Bolton Wanderers on a sunny yet rain showered day at Wembley and after attending games every other week during this season I managed to get a ticket via my travelling companion of the time and his connections at Portsmouth Football Club. It was a one sided Final in which Liverpool were always in control and the more threatening side before Steve McManaman stole the show, the Man of the Match trophy and the three handled trophy itself with 2 goals of pure individual class. I distinctly remember walking back along “Wembley Way” after the Final with an older man (who would be around my age of 50 now) and his young Grandson, and someone who desperately wanted me to swap my Liverpool pin badge for his Bolton Wanderers badge. I wish I could tell a fairy tale of swapping badges and being forever friends, but that Liverpool badge travelled many thousands of miles with me over the years and I couldn’t part with that “lucky badge” that still resides in a bedside drawer to this very day.
Suffice to say I was wearing said badge 6 years later when the now re-named Worthington Cup saw the Reds of Liverpool defeat the Blues of Birmingham City in a one sided Final that could and should have been won by the eventual losers. Liverpool coasted with an early 1–0 lead given to them from the foot of a God, a moniker given to striker Robbie Fowler, but with seconds left, and Liverpool hanging on for the final whistle, Birmingham deservedly equalised through a Darren Purse penalty. The Blues should have had a penalty in extra-time but were ridiculously denied before being denied permanently in a Penalty Shoot-Out by Reds goalkeeper Sander Westerveld as his penalty save ended the Final, ensuring his Liverpool team victorious, and right below my high up perch in Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium.
2 years later, and by sheer coincidence, I was in the exact same corner of Wales National Stadium and the continuing temporary home as Wembley Stadium was re-built and re-constructed to meet a new century. In another one sided Final, Manchester United (in Scouse footballing vernacular) “battered” Liverpool before and after Steven Gerrard’s spectacular opening goal gave the Reds a precious 1–0 lead. Time and again a far superior, technically gifted and multiple Championship winning Manchester United knocked on the Liverpool door only to be repelled by an inspired Jerzy Dudek in the Reds goal. The winning goal that secured the 2–0 Cup Final win was from a scruffy break away that I can still see in my mind’s eye today:
Didi Hamann wins the loose ball on the half-way line before releasing Michael Owen with a beautiful through ball. Owen sprints toward the Manchester United goal with Roy Keane closing all the while to make a last ditch tackle which he does, but misses, and Owen rams the ball past Fabien Barthez in the Manchester United goal and the game, and the Final, is over. All this happened directly below our vantage point high up in the Millennium Stadium and I can honestly say that I’ve rarely celebrated a Liverpool goal more than Owen’s in this League Cup Final 19 years ago. I leapt around and screamed like a banshee and a deranged madman! Why? Well, Liverpool “stole” the League Cup trophy that day and were mightily outclassed by a far more impressive and in the future, far more successful Manchester United, but some days “Your name is on the trophy” and this was one of them.
So was Wembley in 2012 when the Reds last won this trophy.
10 years ago Cardiff City were the opponents rather than the hosting city of the League Cup (Carling Cup) Final, with the grand match itself now back in it’s traditional Wembley Stadium home. I travelled with my “Brothers in Arms” and especially so Andy, and after I’d cooked us both a hearty English breakfast for the tequila fuelled train journey to London. It was a damp and rainy day and one on which the Reds trailed the lower division Cardiff City 0–1 until the 60th minute and Martin Skrtel’s scrappy stabbed home equaliser. Liverpool dominated throughout the 90 minutes but before the Final went into extra-time Cardiff had one last chance, a golden one, but Kenny Miller blazed over the crossbar when he should have scored and won the cup for the “Bluebirds” of Cardiff. With 13 minutes left of extra-time Liverpool’s Dirk Kuyt swept home what seemed like the winning goal but with just 2 minutes remaining Ben Turner scored from a Cardiff corner and with the game at 2–2, yet another Penalty Shoot-Out was required. With the Reds ahead 3–2 on penalties, Liverpool’s Captain Steven Gerrard’s cousin Anthony had to score for Cardiff to prolong the final, but his miss ended it, and the Reds, under the stewardship of a King, won a final trophy under their Manager Kenny Dalglish.
Is the name Liverpool already carved onto the trophy winners nameplate this Sunday? Who knows. The absence of Roberto Firmino and possibly Diogo Jota are the only potential injury blights to a squad of players riding on the crest of a wave of 9 consecutive wins in all competitions, 2nd place in the League Championship and still actively chasing honours in all 4 competitions they entered at the start of the season in August. They play “PlayStation Football” at times and they’ve accumulated that happy knack of winning hard and ugly games of football too. As you will have gathered from this article alone, I’m of the old school football brigade and whilst that’ll never change, the football played by this squad of players under the guidance of the genial German Jurgen Klopp is the very best ever seen around the fields of Anfield Road. The 1987 to 1990 teams of Kenny Dalglish were difficult to beat and the same can be said of the Paisley teams of the 1970’s and early 1980’s. Houllier’s treble winners of 2001 were functional if unspectacular, Benitez’s teams grew and grew into a Championship winning team that won trophies but couldn’t catch the likes of Arsenal or Manchester United. This current team is the very best there has ever been and if you’re a Liverpool fan reading this, enjoy every single second of watching your team, and remain in the moment, because they play some sublime and out of this world stuff at times.
But it’s Chelsea. Those pesky conquerors in the 2005 League Cup Final and the painful defeat in the FA Cup Final 7 years later. A nemesis for so long and a real enmity between the Reds and the Blues will surely ensure that Wembley is a cauldron of noise come Sunday evening. And it’s Chelsea, current European and World Club Champions and a team that will no doubt include the man mountain Antonio Rudiger, Jorginho in midfield alongside N’Golo Kante and any number of predators playing up front, looking for that winning goal and the path to that beautiful three handled Georgian urn, and the silver trophy everyone should adore.
I have as much chance of a ticket as I did for Istanbul in 2005 or Athens 2 years later or even Liverpool’s last Cup Final at Wembley 6 years ago. Alas.
But I will have that lucky badge, a badge I kiss for luck before every big Liverpool game, and I’ll be curled up with my a teenage son who couldn’t avoid football more if he tried, and couldn’t be more disinterested about my claims that he’s a “lucky charm” where watching the Mighty Reds is concerned!
I don’t have a prediction with which to conclude this preview other than I’ll be a nervous wreck. Regardless, watching this Liverpool team that Jurgen Klopp has built and honed and (almost) perfected, is a rare joy, and I have one of those feelings that this season is going to be monumental, whether or not Jordan Henderson lifts that beautiful Georgian urn to the Wembley sky on Sunday or not.
Thanks for reading. Please see below for a brief selection of my more recent scribblings on Liverpool FC. Many more can be found within my archives.
Liverpool 6 Leeds United 0
Luis Diaz lights up Anfield as the Reds continue to chase down Manchester City at the top of the League.medium.com
7 European trips following the Mighty Reds of Liverpool
Volume 3: AS Roma, 4th Round, 1st Leg of the 2000/01 UEFA Cup, 15th and 16th February 2001.medium.com
Liverpool 3 Norwich City 1
Thiago and Henderson inspire the comeback that keeps the Reds in the Title Race.medium.com