LONDON – Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah went off injured during the FA Cup final against Chelsea but it was downplayed after they won.
The English Premier League top scorer went down with no other players around him and he received treatment on his right knee before he was able to walk off unaided.
Salah was replaced in the 33rd minute by Diogo Jota and Liverpool went on to beat Chelsea 6-5 on penalties after the game ended 0-0 after 120 minutes.
There were also concerns when Virgil Van Dijk was brought off at the end of regulation time but manager Jürgen Klopp had no worries about the fitness of the center back or Salah.
“Both are really OK,” Klopp said according to AP. “It’s not a big thing.”
Klopp’s relentless Liverpool beat Chelsea 6-5 on penalties in a fluctuating English FA Cup final to stay on course for an unprecedented quadruple of trophies.
Liverpool is still chasing the Premier League title with two games remaining in the next week and with a Champions League final meeting with Real Madrid in two weeks on May 28.
It was a carbon copy of the League Cup final in February, which Liverpool won 11-10 on penalties after that game also finished goalless.
“I’m really proud of my boys,” Klopp added. “We are mentality monsters but there were mentality monsters in Chelsea colours as well — it was one penalty.
“Chelsea played outstanding but in the end there must be one winner and that was us today.”
Saturday’s win means Liverpool have won 50% of their target for the season.
They are three points behind Manchester City in the Premier League race with two games to go and meet Real Madrid in the Champions League final on May 28.
“This is something that will give us even more confidence to keep on going in the Premier League and also for the Champions League final,” Alisson, who made a crucial save from Marcos Alonso in the first half, said.
For Chelsea it meant an unwelcome record of becoming the first side to lose three FA Cup finals in a row, after losing to Arsenal in 2020 and Leicester City last year.
Liverpool had the best of a pulsating first half with Luis Diaz close several times, before Chelsea came back in the second, with Alonso rattling the crossbar.
Klopp’s Liverpool enjoyed the greater possession and finished the 90 minutes on top, Diaz and Andrew Robertson both hitting the post in the final 10 minutes and the indefatigable Diaz whistling a shot just wide in the 90th.
Tired legs on a warm day contributed to a rather anticlimactic extra time with both sides appearing to have decided to take their chances in a shootout.
“That is part of the `mentality monsters´ as well, going to extra time and keeping the high level, performing well,” Liverpool goalkeeper goalkeeper Alisson Becker said.
“It gives us even more confidence to keep on going for the Premier League and also the Champions League final. This is a fantastic moment and now we just need to enjoy it.”
There was only more Wembley pain for Chelsea. Weeks of ownership turmoil for Chelsea are ending by becoming the first team to lose three consecutive FA Cup final appearances, having been beaten by Arsenal in 2020 and Leicester last year.
The final of world football’s oldest competition had never gone to penalties before at Wembley. There hadn’t even been a goalless final after extra time since it started being played at the national stadium in 1923.
But Liverpool’s last FA Cup success in 2006 was in one of the two previous shootouts that settled the cup final that both happened in Cardiff while Wembley was being rebuilt.
Saturday’s final ended with one half of the stadium shrouded in a red haze of smoke after beginning under a cloud when Liverpool fans jeered the national anthem and the introduction of Prince William.
After the ceremony to mark 150 years of the FA Cup, the 141st final was more tense than turgid, just like in the League Cup final. There were 58 shots produced by the teams without finding the net over their two games at Wembley in 2022.
Sadly for Chelsea, as in February, it was a case of so near yet so far although manager Thomas Tuchel had no regrets.
“Like in the last final, the League Cup, no regrets. I told the team I was proud,” he told reporters. “We played 240 minutes in two finals against maybe the most dangerous attacking team in the world and it’s 0-0.”
“I was sure during the match the momentum was on our side but unfortunately I was not right.”
The only blot on another memorable day for Liverpool was striker Mohamed Salah being withdrawn in the first half with an injury.
Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson was handed the Cup by Prince William to roars from the Liverpool fans while the Chelsea end had largely emptied.
“It’s a big moment for us, we haven’t been in this final for some time so to win it was special,” Henderson said according to Reuters.
The win was Liverpool’s eighth in the 150-year history of the FA Cup, drawing them level with Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur. Arsenal has won the most with 14.
