Tuchel ‘very proud’ of Chelsea in ‘brilliant’ League Cup final, ultimate defeat against Liverpool

It was a full house at Wembley on Sunday night, and they, alongside the global audience, were treated to a ridiculously entertaining, exuberant, exciting, exasperating, ex-everything 120 minutes of some of the highest quality football, topped off with a shootout that literally went all the way with all 11 players on both teams taking one. Talk about getting your money’s worth!

That the eventual penalty kick shootout didn’t go our (or Kepa’s) way, for once, was obviously quite disappointing — that’s now four domestic finals at Wembley lost in a row! —but Chelsea went toe-to-toe with England’s and perhaps Europe’s best team at the moment, and with just a tiny bit more luck, would’ve walked away with our third trophy of the season already.

It was not written in the stars on this night, but it was certainly in the drafts folder. No one ever wants to lose of course, but we have plenty to be proud of from this defeat, as head coach Thomas Tuchel reflected upon afterwards as well.

“Playing like this at this level made me very proud today. I saw a brilliant match of football over 120 minutes and we played a huge part of it.

“I have the feeling we created a bit more, were a bit more there, but maybe that is also subjective. This game could’ve easily gone either way. You need a bit of luck and momentum to win it. If you look at the line that is drawn on the Romelu goal, it’s a bit of a weird line where it’s drawn and then to make the decision that it’s offside, but that’s it.

“We can’t have any regrets. I am proud of the performance and the team. There are a lot of good things and I told the guys we should not lose sleep about this. It was an entertaining match of football that was full of intensity and I am very, very happy to have had the chance to be part of this. It was excellent.”

-Thomas Tuchel; source: Football.London

It certainly would’ve been nice to be able to celebrate something this weekend, but it was not meant to be. These things happen. Congrats to Liverpool for winning a record ninth League Cup, their first domestic cup in a decade. We’ll meet again.

Focus now on the FA Cup, the Champions League, and of course making it an easy top-four finish in the league.

Onwards and upwards!