Chelsea vs Liverpool Carabao Cup final preview

Chelsea and Liverpool have often served us some of the best football matches in the English football calendar whenever they play and will meet in the final of the Carabao Cup this weekend.

The Reds are now a reestablished force in English football, thanks to the outstanding work of Jurgen Klopp and his coaches.

At the end of this season, the German’s era will end after he informed Liverpool that he would leave the club in the summer, and his players want to win the treble as a parting gift for one of the best Liverpool bosses of all time.

Chelsea is just at the start of their rebuild under Mauricio Pochettino, who was chosen to lead the club at the beginning of this season despite his trophyless spell as the coach of Tottenham.

Poch is generally considered an overrated manager, but one thing we must give him credit for is he can develop talented players, which is why he is the ideal man for the Chelsea job.

The Blues have splashed the cash on very young players who have been exciting to watch at their former clubs and since they moved to London.

However, they remain stuck in midtable, thanks to a lack of consistency in their performance level, which mostly drops when they face opponents we expect them to win.

Reaching the final of the Carabao Cup is a good achievement and a step up that will help Poch buy some time as the gaffer of the Blues.

However, can he win the trophy against a Liverpool team that has been the better of both clubs in this campaign?

Chelsea vs Liverpool match preview

Liverpool and Chelsea’s rivalry does not get talked about enough as it is one of the most interesting in the Premier League.

From the days of Jose Mourinho and Rafa Benitez, both clubs have shared a serious rivalry which makes everyone pay attention when they meet.

Selling Carabao Cup tickets for this game will not be so difficult for the FA because both clubs have some of the most loyal sets of fans in the world.

Liverpool had the upper hand the last time both of them met, with the Reds emerging victorious 4-1 in the Premier League, a result which sent a message to their title rivals that they are serious about becoming the champions of England in the summer.

Prior to that game, there had been nothing to separate both clubs in normal time in seven consecutive previous meetings.

This includes the final of the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup in 2022, with Liverpool going on to win both games on penalties.

Two years later, Chelsea has a chance to avenge that defeat, but the Blues have not had the consistency to convince most people to bet on them.

Mauricio Pochettino reached the final of the Carabao Cup in 2015 and the Champions League final in 2019 as the manager of Tottenham, but he lost both of them.

The Argentinian is leading an inconsistent Chelsea team this season, which has spent most of its weeks around midtable, making it difficult for them to earn a European spot in the summer.

Chelsea has achieved some fine results this term, including nearly beating Manchester City twice, as both clubs drew their Premier League meetings.

However, they have lost to teams like Brentford, Wolves and Middlesbrough, which clearly shows that a lack of consistency is a problem they must fix.

Liverpool, on the other hand, has been the top side in the Premier League for a reason as Jurgen Klopp’s men have been on one of their best forms in recent seasons.

The Reds coped very well with the absence of Mo Salah and Wataru Endo, who went to represent their countries at the AFCON and Asian Cup and are back.

Liverpool lost just one of their last ten games in all competitions in 2024, and that was their defeat at Arsenal, which halted their momentum a little.

They have since recovered to defeat Brentford and Burnley ahead of the game against Chelsea, but the Reds are dealing with an injury crisis.

Jurgen Klopp lost Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota to injuries in the first half of their match against Brentford, and both have been ruled out of this game.

They join Dominik Szoboszlai, Joel Matip, Trent Alexander Arnold and Alisson Becker on the treatment table, with all of them expected to miss this game.

These players are key to Liverpool’s success this term, especially Jota, who filled in well in the absence of Salah.

However, Chelsea also has their injury problems to contend with ahead of what is the most important match of their season.

Poch will be without Benoit Badiashile, Recce James, Romeo Lavia, Marc Cucurella, Lesley Ugochukwu, and Wesley Fofana.

But both clubs still have more than enough good players to help them handle the challenge from their opponent and serve fans a good game to watch.

Klopp vs Mauricio Pochettino

Pochettino has a long-term project on his hands as the manager of Chelsea, with the Blues expected to back him for some time to turn things around.

Making him the manager of Chelsea is an interesting choice because we all know he is a manager who is good at managing youngsters.

However, the Argentinian has not won enough trophies to give Chelsea fans much hope of winning this game on Sunday.

At Spurs, he reached the final of a major competition twice and lost both games to Manchester City and Liverpool. Will he finally defeat the Reds and get some vengeance?

Klopp, on the other hand, was already an established winner in Germany with Borussia Dortmund before he moved to the Premier League to manage Liverpool.

The German won back-to-back Bundesliga titles with BVB in 2011 and 2012, and he competed well with Pep Guardiola when the Spaniard became the coach of Bayern Munich between 2013 and 2016.

He continued his rivalry with Pep in England and has since won every single club trophy in the world apart from the Europa League and Europa Conference League.

Klopp lost the final of the 2018 and 2022 Champions League while winning the trophy in 2019, so the German is much more qualified and has a better pedigree than Poch.

But that may not count in an important final like this, so Chelsea fans do not have to fear, and Liverpool supporters must not feel too sure of their team winning.

Key battles in the final

Liverpool lost two men to Chelsea in the last transfer window after Romeo Lavia and Moises Caicedo chose the Blues over Jurgen Klopp’s men.

Now will be a good time for Caicedo to show Liverpool what they missed, but he would face World Cup winner Alexis Mac Allister and Wataru Endo, two midfielders who have been superb for Liverpool.

Axel Disasi was in outstanding form when Chelsea drew 1-1 at Manchester City and he will now have to defend against an in-form Darwin Nunez who is full of confidence ahead of this game.

Chelsea’s attack of Raheem Sterling, Christopher Nkuku, Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson would be coming up against Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate who keeps Arsenal’s William Saliba on the bench in France.

There will be battles everywhere on the Wembley pitch on Sunday and fans can expect a tighter game than when both clubs met in the Premier League recently, which simply means it will not be one-way traffic.