Liverpool’s pursuit of a quadruple is alive after they lifted the FA Cup at Wembley Saturday, defeating Chelsea 6-5 on penalties after 120 scoreless minutes.
Kostas Tsimikas fired home the winning penalty in the seventh round after Alisson saved Mason Mount’s effort. With the game on the line in the fifth round of shots, Sadio Mané saw his potential winning penalty saved by Édouard Mendy, only for Liverpool to recover and win the tiebreaker.
The victory keeps Liverpool in the running to make history, as they pursue England’s first-ever quadruple. The Reds have now won both domestic cups (beating Chelsea on penalties in the Carabao Cup final back in February), and still have the Champions League final against Real Madrid coming up in two weeks. In the league, they trail Manchester City by three points with two matches left to play.
The two sides produced draws in league play and then needed penalties to separate them in February’s Carabao Cup final, which like today’s game finished in a scoreless draw. Despite chances at both ends, some wayward finishing and late fatigue assured yet another level finish between two of England’s top sides.
Liverpool had all the early chances, with Mendy’s 8th minute save on Sadio Mané proving crucial. However, after about 30 minutes, Chelsea stabilized, and both teams struck the woodwork. Marcos Alonso saw a free kick strike the crossbar moments into the second half, while Liverpool hit both posts in the late stages. Mendy saw a Luis Díaz shot clip his left post, and within a minute, Andrew Robertson’s volley cracked off the other side of the goal frame.
Beyond Liverpool winning their first FA Cup since 2006, the biggest storyline in this game is a potentially worrisome injury for Mohamed Salah. Liverpool’s star forward took a seat on the Wembley pitch due to an apparent injury, with Jürgen Klopp forced to replace him with Diogo Jota in the 33rd minute.
Christian Pulisic watch
Pulisic, starting on the right side of the Chelsea front three before a late move into the center forward role, was arguably the Blues’ most dangerous player on the day, but couldn’t find the breakthrough goal.
He nearly stunned Liverpool with a 22nd minute chance—the first true look for Chelsea—that he pushed just wide from 14 yards. The USMNT star created two good looks for Marcos Alonso, before being denied by Alisson moments into the second half.
In the end, Pulisic played through the first 105 minutes, being replaced during the break in extra time by Ruben Loftus-Cheek.