Carabao Cup final LIVE: Latest team news, line-ups and more as Chelsea face Liverpool

Mauricio Pochettino knows that Liverpool’s ever-growing injury list is not an excuse for his team to slack and believe that the Reds will not be as formidable a threat at Wembley this afternoon.

Pochettino stressed that it was important for the team not to alter their expectations of Liverpool who are a side which will provide a tough challenge no matter their starting line-up.

“I understand always, I never like to see your opponent or teams suffer injured players,” Pochettino said, “Of course we empathise because we were dealing with it from the beginning.

“I understand that always it’s difficult. I think always in the middle when the dynamic is positive, if you suffer some injuries you can manage. You can find solutions that can work easy, but when it is from the beginning and you still need to create a positive dynamic, always you are chasing the rabbit.

“But I understand that the circumstances are maybe not easy today for the opponent, but the competition is the competition.

“We cannot complain, we cannot find things that can affect the players who are going to compete. For sure Liverpool are going to be Liverpool and we need to go there thinking that we need to beat Liverpool.”

Mauricio Pochettino says he and his team are proud to take charge of Chelsea on such a momentous occasion with a trophy at stake.

“It means a lot for us, me and my coaching staff, to have the possibility to arrive in a final and to challenge a team like Liverpool to win our first title here, 11 years after we arrived at Southampton,” the Argentine explained.

“It’s a dream for us and we have the possibility. We have 90 minutes to achieve that and we are going to fight. I think the team is ready, we are going to be very competitive and it is an amazing chance for us.

“Wembley is like home, because we played a lot there with Tottenham. It feels like going back to your home, because after one-and-a-half years competing there we created a very good bond between Wembley, the team and everyone there.

“For sure it is going to be special to play there and special if we win. We are going to give our best to compete, be better than Liverpool and deserve to lift the trophy.”

Liverpool are making their 14th appearance in the League Cup final. This is their 44th appearance at Wembley, with 22 wins to date.

Will they make it 23 wins by defeating Chelsea this afternoon?

In the last few days, Mauricio Pochettino has reminded his Chelsea players of the embarrassment they felt coming off the pitch at Anfield a few weeks ago. Liverpool eviscerated them 4-1. But Jurgen Klopp’s squad haven’t really dwelt on that victory themselves. They’ve had too much happening. Liverpool are going full steam ahead for four trophies.

This League Cup may well be a first on a few levels, but also a last.

It is at least possible it will be the last trophy that Klopp wins with Liverpool. It could well be a special afternoon, even if it isn’t totally realised on the day.

Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino has confirmed Thiago Silva has a chance of being passed fit in time to return for today’s Carabao Cup final against Liverpool.

Speaking earlier in the week Pochettino said he is 99% certain of his starting XI but is waiting to see if some of the injured players in his squad will be fit.

“We need to assess a few players still to see if they can be involved on Sunday,” said Pochettino on Friday. “We will know tomorrow if we can recover some players from injury.

“Thiago has a chance, tomorrow we will see if he is ready to be involved in the game.

“I have decided who will be the goalkeeper. 99 per cent my team is in my head. I have not told the players yet because always, anything can happen.

“So I prefer to wait until tomorrow, or maybe after tomorrow.”

In the absence of Alisson Becker, Caoimhin Kelleher will start in goal for Liverpool for today’s final. He also played in the Carabao Cup final in 2022 and scored the winning penalty in the shootout.

Klopp was full of praise for his second goalkeeper and says that Kelleher deserves the chance to feature in another cup final.

“I know Caoimh for eight years so I saw him growing… literally! He deserves it, he is a fantastic goalkeeper. I think I was not shy of mentioning that in public,” he said.

“You know we have this wall at the goalie area [at the AXA Training Centre], which Adrian is on because he won the Super Cup, and Caoimh went on after that night at Wembley, which was a pretty special night for him and for us.

“He just deserves it, let me say it like that, of all the things. We have so many nice stories at the moment with our own kids getting through to the first team.

“And I think having Alisson Becker in the club as the No.1 – if I would have to make a world XI tomorrow, he would be the goalie – being then No.2 is top because you can learn so many things.

“But of course you need game time as well, and giving him that now in the Europa League in the group stage and the Carabao Cup, he played a lot of games. Getting through to the final is for sure a pretty special story for him.”

Chelsea and Liverpool have met in two previous League Cup finals (2005 and 2022) and two previous FA Cup finals (2012 and 2022).

This will be the first fixture to have been played in five different major domestic finals in English football history.

Here’s a reminder of what happened the last time these two teams met. It was a Premier League game at Anfield back in January and Liverpool were the better side by far.

Diogo Jota, Conor Bradley, Dominik Szoboszlai and Luis Diaz all scored that day as the Reds romped to a 4-1 victory. Will they repeat that type of performance at Wembley?

Liverpool’s two cup final victories in 2022, the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup, both came at the expense of Chelsea. The two teams face off against each other again today though Jurgen Klopp says that past results count for nothing in a final.

“The result we had here [a 4-1 league win over Chelsea at Anfield last month] doesn’t help, of course we have to play the game again and it’s like firing the opponent up slightly,” said the Liverpool boss.

“The final is a completely different game, there’s no home ground obviously. We played them now a couple of times in a final and we know one part is blue and one is red. We know what our people are able to do, but the Chelsea people will be looking forward to it as well.

“But everybody knows, a final, there is no favourite, it starts at nil and for each little advantage you want to have, you have to work incredibly hard.

“The two Chelsea games in the finals [in 2022], I remember as two of the best draws I’ve ever been part of in my entire life because it was from a tactical point of view incredible, from an intensity point of view incredible, and then 0-0, 0-0 – strange one.”

Despite missing the pre-match press conference Liverpool boss, Jurgen Klopp, hasn’t been silent ahead of today’s League Cup showpiece.

Speaking with Liverpoolfc.com Klopp was asked if he thought his team deserved to be in the final and the German was absolutely certain that they did.

“Oh, 100 per cent. I have no doubt about it. Really tough opponents and really great performances.” said Klopp when assessing Liverpool’s route to Wembley.

“We changed a lot, changed the teams a lot. For us the competition was a benefit as well, if you want, because at that time we had pretty much 95 per cent of the squad available and we could play them all and we did. So it’s great.

“It’s the Caoimhin Kelleher competition as well, so he has the chance to win the second trophy of his career, which is absolutely great. He won already a lot, but standing in the goal I know that maybe feels for the boys slightly different. He plays the second final, let me say it like that. That’s all really cool.

“So far, only positives about the competition.”