After Mason Mount saw his effort saved by Alisson Becker, Konstantinos Tsimikas was handed the opportunity to win the cup for the Reds and he coolly converted from 12 yards out.
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Jurgen Klopp gave credit to a neuroscience company for Liverpool’s FA Cup final penalty shootout victory over Chelsea on Saturday. The Reds completed a clean sweep of domestic cups with another dramatic win over Chelsea at Wembley stadium. After both sides failed to break the deadlock in 120 minutes, the match went to penalties, where Cesar Azpilicueta and Sadio Mane missed in the opening 10 penalties and it went to sudden death. After Mason Mount saw his effort saved by Alisson Becker, Konstantinos Tsimikas was handed the opportunity to win the cup for the Reds and he coolly converted from 12 yards out.
WE ARE THE #EmiratesFACup WINNERS!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/eZMe5IRbB2
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) May 14, 2022
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It had taken 22 penalties to separate the sides in February’s Carabao Cup final and while there were only 14 taken after another goalless 120 minutes on this occasion, it was once again Jurgen Klopp’s side who clinched the silverware by the narrowest of margins, handing Chelsea a third straight FA Cup final defeat in the process.
Klopp claimed he owes the success to neuro11, a firm based in Germany and co-founded by Dr Niklas Hausler and Patrick Hantschke, which monitors brain activity to optimise player performance. “We work together with a company, four guys, their name is neuro 11,” said Klopp. “They got in contact with us two years ago, I think I was aware of it [then]. One of them is a neuroscientist and he said ‘we can train penalty shooting’ Really. And I said: ‘sounds interesting, come over.’ “German guy, we met. We worked together and this trophy is for them like the Carabao Cup was.”
Earlier in the shoot-out, Sadio Mane, who scored a winning penalty for Senegal at the Africa Cup of Nations and another to send them to the World Cup earlier this year, had missed the opportunity to clinch it for Liverpool following Azpilicueta’s strike against the post, but Tsimikas kept his cool to become the hero.
“Sadio’s penalty was maybe more, for sure at least 50 per cent, my responsibility,” he said. “We have to let the boys do what they think they do but with him I said ‘he knows exactly the goalie so do it the other way around.’ Like very often in my life I realise it was better to shut up. But we still made it.”
Klopp’s side are realistically in with a chance to claim quadruple of trophies this season, having already secured the EFL Cup and FA Cup and due to play Real Madrid in the Champions League final on May 28 and are three points away from Premier League leaders Manchester City, with two games remaining. The German tactician said the chances of his side claiming the quadruple of trophies would become clearer after Man City’s trip to West Ham United on Sunday afternoon. “Let’s just see what happens,” Klopp told reporters. “If they lose against West Ham then I will start thinking. If they don’t, we will judge that we will go from there.”
