Liverpool's fearless youngsters topple Chelsea to win League Cup

Liverpool celebrates after defeating Chelsea in the League Cup final at Wembley Stadium in London on Sunday. 

LONDON - The old adage that you can't win anything with kids was thrown out the window on Sunday when Jurgen Klopp relied on a host of youngsters who repaid his faith as Liverpool beat Chelsea after extra time. Defeated 1-0. League Cup

Klopp, faced with an injury crisis so severe that it threatens to derail Sunday's plans at Wembley, has turned to a group of young players with barely a handful of first-team appearances among them. pulled it out of the hole.

A flagging Liverpool needed an injection of energy to swing the momentum back in their favor as the game headed into extra-time with Chelsea on edge.

The Liverpool manager dropped 19-year-olds, James McConnell and Bobby Clarke, 18-year-old Jaden Dennis, and 21-year-old Jarell Kwanza off the bench.

All four looked calm on the ball and unfazed by the chance as Liverpool got the decisive breakthrough in extra time when Virgil van Dijk scored to give the winners the lead in the 118th minute.

The League Cup may be the least important of England's domestic trophies, but Klopp, a Champions League and Premier League winner with Liverpool and a double Bundesliga champion with Borussia Dortmund, said Sunday's win was something special.

"I was told out there that you don't win trophies with kids," he said. "Rewrite it. In my 20-plus years (as a manager), this is easily the most special trophy I've won.

"Sometimes I get asked if I'm proud of him or her, I wish I was proud more often, but I was proud of everything today.

"Seeing the faces of the kids after the game, Jayden Danns, can you create stories in football that nobody will forget — tonight if you come up against a top, top side with academy players and win. With the same story, this is how we do it."

It was Liverpool's first trophy since Klopp's shock announcement that he would step down at the end of the season after nine years in charge.

"All the young guys on the pitch, in extra time, it's unbelievable," Van Dijk said. “I'm very proud of the boys.

All of them played a role in what we have achieved today. Intense game from both sides. They had chances, we had chances. amazing.

"First trophy as Liverpool captain. It's all for the fans so let's enjoy it."

The Liverpool manager had already started the game with 20-year-old Connor Bradley and Harvey Elliott in a line-up largely dictated by the players he was missing.

With Diego Jota, Trent Alexander-Arnold, goalkeepers Alisson and Curtis Jones, key forwards Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez, and midfielder Dominique Soboszli recently among the long-term absentees, their managerial careers have hardly taken a turn for the worse. Be of Edge

The loss of Ryan Gravenbruch to a nasty ankle injury after 28 minutes didn't help the cause, forcing Klopp into a change that saw Bradley play further forward on the right.

Yet Liverpool's youngsters were not deterred against a Chelsea side that assembled at an eye-watering cost.

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"It was very special," added the Liverpool manager, who said age was not in his thought process when he selected his team.

"You look at the situation, we had problems before the game. They got bigger during the game. Tonight is a night I'll never forget and if nobody else sees it that way, no problem. No. It's a really good memory for me forever."