Liverpool hold nerve to beat Chelsea on penalties in League Cup

Both sides could claim to have been deserving winners in a classic free-flowing encounter full of goalscoring chances, remarkable saves and four disallowed goals.

Even in the penalty shoot-out the two heavyweights were inseparable with 21 successful kicks ratcheting up the tension.

In the end it came down to an unlikely duel between two goalkeepers with Liverpool's young Irish shot-stopper Caoimhin Kelleher belting his penalty past Kepa Arrizabalaga who had replaced Edouard Mendy for the shoot-out.

Spaniard Arrizabalaga then blazed his effort over the bar into the massed ranks of Liverpool supporters who celebrated the club's first domestic Cup silverware for a decade.

While Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp had won the Premier League and Champions League since arriving at Anfield, it was a rare cup success for the German who had won only two of his previous eight finals with Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool.