Penalty drama against Alonso's Chelsea: Wirtz scores – Liverpool into quarter-finals
A reunion with his former coach: Florian Wirtz came off the bench against Chelsea in the League Cup, missed a big chance – and then calmly converted in the shoot-out to send Liverpool through.
Archive image · Photo: Fan First Matchday / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 (cropped and resized)
Liverpool knocked Chelsea out of the English League Cup and are into the quarter-finals. It was 1-1 after 90 minutes on Wednesday evening: Morgan Rogers put Chelsea ahead from the penalty spot after a foul (40th minute), and Cody Gakpo equalised three minutes later with a penalty for handball. Liverpool won the shoot-out 6-5.
Germany international Florian Wirtz came on in the 59th minute and missed a big chance in normal time. In the shoot-out he then converted Liverpool's fourth spot-kick. The game was special for him because Xabi Alonso was on the Chelsea bench – his former coach at Bayer Leverkusen, with whom he won the league and cup double in 2024.
Wirtz was recently involved in several goals in the 2-0 win over Brighton. In a week's time, on 5 November, head coach Jürgen Klopp will name his squad for the Nations League games in Serbia and against the Netherlands.