The VAR was again the protagonist: in this case it was against Liverpool

The Carabao Cup final is proving to be an impressive spectacle. Liverpool and Chelsea gave their best during the 90 minutes to try to win the first title of the season and, despite not being able to score goals, they proved to be two teams of great quality and with a lot of offensive ambition.

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During the first half the game was very even and there were opportunities to score in both boxes. The Blues forced a great save from Caoimhin Kelleher after a Cole Palmer shot, while Cody Gakpo had the biggest chance for The Reds with a header that hit the post. In addition, Raheem Sterling had scored the opener, but the goal was disallowed by the VAR for a debatable previous offside by Nicolas Jackson.

After the break it was Liverpool who felt they were hurting, as Virgil Van Dijk netted with a header and again the VAR stepped in to disallow it. That seemed to be a hard blow for Jurgen Klopp's team because, added to the number of important players who were absent due to injury, during the last minutes they could not show a good performance and were outplayed by their rivals.

Chelsea did their best to grab the winner before the final whistle, but they lacked precision. Conor Gallagher had two chances: in the first one Kelleher saved the shot with his left hand and in the second one the shot went too high. And in one of the last ones the Irish goalkeeper had a great reaction to avoid the Blues' goal after a corner kick.

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Now it's extra time

The 0-0 draw in the 90 minutes meant that extra time had to be played. Two halves of 15 minutes each will now be played and both teams will do their best to score the goal that will give them the title. If that does not happen, the Carabao Cup 2024 will be decided by penalty shootout.