Liverpool's kids beat the 'blue billion pound bottle jobs'! Winners and losers as youthful Reds defeat ridiculously wasteful Chelsea in Carabao Cup final

It's fitting that Van Dijk, a player whose arrival in Merseyside propelled Klopp's side to the next level, was the one to come up big when his manager was in desperate need of a hero. During the in-game hour preceding the Dutchman's 118th-minute winner, the Reds were clinging on for dear life, with Chelsea peppering their goalmouth.

And Van Dijk had already had a potentially-decisive moment ripped away by a controversial offside call in the first half, with Wataru Endo adjudged to have impeded Levi Colwill while in an offside position.

But Van Dijk is a first-class honours graduate from Klopp's 'mentality monsters' finishing school - he always knows when it's time to get things won. And, thus, in the dying embers of extra-time, up he rose, giving Djordje Petrovic no chance in the Chelsea goal. It's the latest in a long line of iconic moments for Van Dijk in a red shirt. What a servant he's been to Klopp and Liverpool.

Gallagher will have watched Van Dijk's dramatic winner and thought: "that should have been me." The Englishman wasn't the only Chelsea player guilty of shoddy finishing on Sunday, but he was by far the worst offender.

Twice in quick succession late in the second half, Gallagher was handed the opportunity to win the game for his side, but on both occasions he let the chance to be the hero slip through his fingers. His first effort was a clever snapshot following a cute cutback, which careered into the post.

Gallagher's second was a much worse miss as he fired straight at Kelleher while one on one with the Liverpool goalkeeper. He only lasted a few minutes of extra-time and the tired shake of his head as he ambled off told the story.

This was a game packed to the brim with top-class goalkeeping. Caoimhin Kelleher, currently enjoying one of those runs of form that makes you wonder why he settles for being a No.2, got the party started, making himself big to prevent Cole Palmer scoring from close range following good work from Raheem Sterling.

That was only an appetiser too, with the Irishman taking things up a notch in the second half. When Gallagher was found in acres of space by Cole Palmer four minutes from time, the Red half of Wembley held its breath. They needn't have worried, though, as Kelleher again kept it out. There was still time for one more save before the 90 minutes was up too, as the keeper sucked the ball into his grasp like a magnet at the end of a tortuous goalmouth scramble.

This wasn't all about Liverpool's backup stopper, though. Djordje Petrovic - who few would have expected to be playing regularly for the Blues at the start of the season - had a superb afternoon. And things got spectacular in extra-time, with the Serbian using his feet to somehow prevent Harvey Elliot's back-post header creeping in. Petrovic was beaten soon after, but that shouldn't detract from an excellent day's work for the goalkeeper's union.

The beautiful, embroidered banner in the Liverpool end bore his resemblance, but on the field, the Reds' Egyptian King was nowhere to be seen. And while Mohamed Salah would have enjoyed watching Van Dijk head home that dramatic winner, it will have been a bittersweet day for one of the Premier League's biggest stars.

He was far from the only Liverpool man frustratingly forced to watch on at Wembley. Darwin Nunez - who's been so effective recently - Dominik Szoboszlai, Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Curtis Jones were some of Klopp's other missing parts, but the list goes on.

A lot of those players have special relationships with Klopp and they will be acutely aware that time is running out for them to create more memories together. So missing out on this Wembley showpiece will be difficult to take.

Amid this crippling injury crisis, the last thing Klopp needed was anyone else being consigned to the treatment table. But Liverpool's recent luck dictated that with less than 30 minutes on the clock, Ryan Gravenberch went down in a heap following a naughty challenge from Moises Caicedo.

Quite remarkably, Caicedo escaped the incident without a yellow card. There was to be no such good fortune for Gravenberch, however, as he required a stretcher to leave the field. With midfield numbers already at perilously-low levels, Liverpool will be praying that the injury is not as bad as it looked.

Casual football fans might have tuned in for the final on Sunday and been left at a complete loss as to who on earth some of the players running around in Red shirts were. The youth contained in the XI that Liverpool finished the game with was staggering.

Jarell Quansah is just 21, Conor Bradley only 20, while Bobby Clark, James McConnell and Jayden Danns are younger still. It would have been understandable for these young pups to wilt under the Wembley spotlight, but not a single one of them looked overwrought or out of their depth tactically, technically or physically.

Bradley, the only one of the fivesome to start, looked particularly impressive, especially before Gravenberch's injury disrupted the team's shape, but each of Quansah, Clark, McConnell and Danns thoroughly earned their winners medal this afternoon. The future looks very bright at Anfield.

Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville has blessed us with a few zingers over the years, but the phrase: "Klopp's kids against the blue billion pound bottle jobs" might be the Man Utd legend's best-ever work. It's a simplistic assessment of things, but it's not massively far from the mark.

Since completing his takeover of the Blues, Boehly has spent, spent and then spent some more, with the aim of returning the glory years to Stamford Bridge. Victory on Sunday could have been the first step on that long road, but instead Chelsea's season now hangs by a thread, with progression in the FA Cup their only chance of salvaging something from the wreckage.

The result at Wembley will be tough to stomach for Boehly, particularly as pretty much everything went in the Blues' favour - other than that disallowed Raheem Sterling goal, of course. Liverpool were severely weakened by injuries and then lost Gravenberch early on. And the Blues also came out on the right side of some refereeing controversy for Van Dijk's disallowed goal and created countless chances.

Despite all of this, Pochettino's side could not get the job done. And you know what they say. If it looks like a bottle job and smells like a bottle job, it's probably a bottle job, as harsh as that might seem.