Jurgen Klopp was full of praise for Liverpool’s young players after their Carabao Cup final win against Chelsea.
Virgil van Dijk scored the winning goal in extra time at Wembley.
The team was missing key players like Trent Alexander-Arnold, Darwin Nunez, Diogo Jota, Curtis Jones, and Dominik Szoboszlai due to injuries.
Conor Bradley, 20, started the game, and academy graduates Bobby Clark, James McConnell, Jayden Danns, and Jarell Quansah came off the bench.
Klopp was especially happy with the victory, as it was his seventh major trophy as Liverpool’s manager.
“It’s absolutely insane,” he told Sky Sports. “These things are not possible! A team, a squad, an academy full of character. It’s unbelievable what happened here tonight.
“I’m so proud that I could be part of that tonight. Wow! The crazy stuff is we deserved it. Yes, we had lucky moments, they had lucky moments. That’s fine. It was a tough game for 120 minutes. The boys showed up and it was really cool.
“I’m pretty sure that when we brought on all the kids, people were thinking ‘that’s it now, they give up. They’ve got a game on Wednesday’. That was really not the case.
“We thought we needed fresh legs – and the fresh legs were fresh, but very young. But they did the jobs. Danns headed against the crossbar. There was another one, a scrappy ball, maybe he could score from there. James [McConnell] and Bobby [Clark], what they did, it’s unbelievable.
This is Jurgen Klopp’s second Carabao Cup final win since he joined Liverpool. The Reds also defeated Chelsea two years ago in a match that went to penalties.
This time, extra time was needed to determine the winner. There were many opportunities for both teams, including a controversially disallowed goal by Van Dijk and several saves by goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher.
Klopp had high praise for Kelleher’s outstanding performance in the game.
“What a mature performance,” he manager continued. “I’ve said it so often. We have the best goalkeeper in the world, and the best No. 2 in the world.
“It’s unbelievable how he played. I’m so happy for him as well. Top game.”
Kelleher was the goalkeeper for Liverpool when they defeated Chelsea two years ago. He has been playing more often in the Premier League this season because the regular No. 1 goalkeeper, Alisson Becker, has been dealing with fitness problems.
“It’s hard to sum up,” the 25-year-old added. “These are the moments you dream of, celebrating with the fans and winning a trophy at Wembley. It’s hard to describe.
“We won’t get ahead of ourselves, but it’s a great start, to give us momentum for the rest of the season. With players to come back, the young lads have been brilliant as well, we’re in a good place at the moment.
“We just need to keep it going, I think. Winning the first trophy is the first step. Hopefully we can win a few more as well.”
