ROMAN EMPIRE ENDS WITH A CRASH
Red thorn in the side of Abramovich era returns to hurt disgraced owner
SOMEWHERE in Moscow, in a luxury villa, Roman Abramovich put the non-vintage champagne back in the fridge — times are hard when you are down to your last few billion — and retired for the evening. The era dominated by Vladimir Putin’s sanctioned crony ended as it began, frustrated by Liverpool.
Liverpool, that perennial thorn in Chelsea’s side in the Abramovich era, cavorted around the pitch as their fans at one end of Wembley unleashed a thick plume of red smoke that hung like a haze in the north-west London evening.
Of course, Abramovich, who oversaw 19 major trophies, couldn’t be here. You put £1.6billion into a side and can’t even get a ticket for the final, not if you’re enabling a war provoked by your political mentor. His successor Todd Boehly was in the stands instead.
But as Kostas Tsimikas, an unlikely hero if ever there was one, tucked the 13th penalty of the day into the bottom right-hand corner, there was a symmetry to the familiar joust between these two teams. At the start of Abramovich’s days, Chelsea reigned in the league but couldn’t get past Liverpool in those epic semifinals in the Champions League, the trophy he really wanted.
Back then, Liverpool couldn’t compete financially. But over time, they have surpassed Chelsea. They are a better-run club and superior side. And so here, in a superb contest — ignore the scoreline — Chelsea came up short. Only just, but it will feel a bitter blow nonetheless, having lost the Carabao Cup final to Liverpool here in precisely the same circumstances.
Generally under Abramovich, Chelsea have found a way to win these set-piece occasions. Whether that be the Nou Camp and Munich in 2012, or winning a Europa League final in a below-par season, or with tactical adjustments in their most recent league titles under Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte.
Thomas Tuchel continued that tradition in Porto, last year, against a superior Manchester City side in the Champions League final, where he kept his cool against a strangely rattled Pep Guardiola.
Again, they did so on penalties, in the UEFA Super Cup against Villarreal, hanging in at times but getting the job done. Then there was the FIFA Club World Cup final, for which they were overwhelming favourites yet were taken to extra time. A penalty three minutes from the end saw them lift that trophy.
Even here in the penalty shootout, when they went 5-4 down and were on the cusp of losing, Edouard Mendy saved them, with a dive to his left to deny his Senegal teammate Sadio Mane.
Chelsea, back from the dead, were on the front foot when Hakim Ziyech scored their sixth spot kick and Diogo Jota had to score to keep Liverpool in it. He did.
Mason Mount then missed, Alisson saving brilliantly, a strong hand up to his left and having to ensure he jumped and picked up the rebound which was spinning towards goal. Had he over celebrated his good work would have been in vain. He set the stage for Tsimikas’s moment of glory. He seized his moment and Chelsea’s durability was nothing but an impressive footnote. Here, it had seemed early on they had met their match. Just as in the semi-final at Wembley, Liverpool roared out of the traps. Literally. The volume from the red end of the stadium was noticeably louder and the crescendo of noise carried the Liverpool team, who tore into Chelsea. Missing Kai Havertz, Chelsea were already weakened and the vulnerability never seemed more exposed than in than opening 15 minutes. There is something especially brutal in watching one player identified as a weak link and being targeted by a world-class team. Trevoh Chalobah fell into that category. Three times in the first nine minutes, Liverpool hit cross-field balls to allow Luis Diaz either to run at him or in behind him.
Chelsea were helpless. Tuchel was desperately shouting from the touchline, trying to help the 22-year-old cope. Really, Chalobah should have been punished when Diaz ran free of him for the third time on nine minutes, Mendy saved Chelsea, sprawling himself in front of the Colombian. The ball bobbled and it was Chalobah who got back to scramble it away.
Chalobah didn’t crumble. He endured that awful opening quarter but stood strong thereafter. And, unlike City, who were 3-0 down at half-time when Liverpool did this to them, Chelsea stayed in the game. Slowly Mateo Kovacic and Jorginho established a grip of the midfield. By the end of the half they had created the best chances, Christian Pulisic shooting wide from Mount’s cross on 23 minutes and Marcos Alonso’s poor touch allowing Alisson to smother when the Spaniard should have scored on 28 minutes.
Then a major boost for any side facing Liverpool: Mohamed Salah clutching his groin, limping off on 32 minutes. For Chelsea, it came at just the right time to bolster their growing self-belief.
The mark of a great coach is a side that is transformed at halftime. That’s the real skill of the job, turning around a team’s mentality, adjusting tactics in a chaotic dressing room. Tuchel does this consistently. Chelsea came out and battered Liverpool for 10 minutes, seizing the initiative, dominating possession with every player a further 10 yards up the pitch.
Alonso went close from a Pulisic cross and then Alonso rattled the crossbar with a free-kick from wide right. Chelsea weren’t simply in the game, they were in control.
Naturally, that wouldn’t last. An absorbing contest, just like the Carabao Cup final, ensued. If the company famous for making insipid lager did 0-0 cup finals, then they would involve these two teams and be like this: full of
goal-mouth action, slightly manic and yet involving moments of superb skill and precision.
By the end of 90 minutes, Chelsea were hanging on. Diaz cut inside and thumped a shot against the post on 83 minutes. A minute later James Milner delivered a perfect cross, Andy Robertson sprinted towards it and got the necessary touch only to see it ricochet off the post. The Liverpool fans in front of him looked ready to combust in the excitement of it all.
Extra-time came, by now it was resembling the final rounds of heavyweight boxing contest, the opponents grappling and dodging, afraid of one late knockout blow.
Liverpool lost Virgil van Dijk to injury. Romelu Lukaku, largely ineffective, was withdrawn. Tuchel, even by his own extreme standards, grew increasingly manic on the touchline.
We ended 0-0, the first time since 2005. But this final was nothing like that, when Arsene Wenger uncharacteristically parked the bus and hung on for penalties to beat Manchester United.
This compelling final was followed by a dramatic shootout, with Liverpool on the front foot and then Chelsea. And yet Liverpool prevailed. And the Abramovich era of cup finals ended, not with a victory lap but in defeat.