Liverpool have won a dramatic penalty shoot-out at Wembley to clinch their record 8th League Cup against Cardiff City.
The Reds fought back from a goal down through the imperious Martin Skrtel to take the game into extra-time before substitute Dirk Kuyt looked to have won the game late on.
However Cardiff’s never-say-die attitude saw them equalize from a corner with just a few seconds remaining, ensuring the Cup would be decided by a dreaded penalty shoot-out.
Liverpool never do things the easy way and when Steven Gerrard and Charlie Adam both missed for the Reds, every fan must have felt it really wasn’t to be our day, despite dominating the game for the duration. However penalty nerves also got the better of the Championship who also missed, leaving Stewart Downing, Dirk Kuyt and Glen Johnson to give Liverpool an advantage in a sudden-death situation.
In an ironic twist of fate, it was the cousin of Liverpool captain, Anthony Gerrard, who missed the vital Cardiff kick in front of the travelling Reds fans, and in doing so handing Liverpool their first trophy in 6-years.
can someone tell the team to NOT to leave it so late…maybe win it in regular time!
Congrats to the Team and to Kenny….
good times ahead…
Campeone!!! 6 long years we’ve waited to lift a Cup but being at Wembley with Kenny leading has made it worth the wait!
A wins a win, but it only papers over the cracks.
Our team can barely control the ball for any length of time. Steven Gerrard constantly ran ahead of the play when we had the ball, instead of controlling the game from the midfield and being selective with his runs. Needs to be in a free role and have 2 disciplined centre midfield players behind him with 1 making selective runs forward.
He was not the only culprit as most of Kenny’s signings were poor bar downing and I expected him to play ok because he was up against a pensioner. Lets see if he’s any good against Arsenal.
Really happy with the win, but not happy with the way we played, very poor. If we want to win the bigger trophies we have a lot to do.
Congrats to Kenny and the boys
I agree with your observation of Gerrard, but I thought Adam in particular was guilty of letting the game (and Cardiff’s midfield) pass him by.
I do think there is cause for optimism however, and a Cup win will hopefully signal a rise in confidence and belief.
Congrats to liverpool….
Glad Liverpool brought a mid-season trophy home! Gives cause for optimism for the rest of the season:
http://footballneutral.blogspot.com/2012/02/mid-season-victory.html