Chelsea's League Cup final with Liverpool reached the 11th round of the penalty shootout, with their Spanish goalkeeper Kepa standing on the free throw spot. Prior to that, he had stood on the goal line 11 times but had not saved any penalties, including a shot by Liverpool's 23-year-old young goalkeeper Kelleher in the 11th round. This time, he still had good luck as the main penalty taker, and a slightly scrawled shot directly fired an anti-aircraft cannon, completely ending the marathon race and completing Liverpool's first League Cup title in 10 years.
This result is not unfamiliar to Kepa, in February 2019, Chelsea met Manchester City in the League Cup final, that time, the same 120-minute battle each other, the same cruel penalty shootout, fell 12 yards before the same Chelsea, for the Blues to guard the goal is also Kepa. The blues manager Sarri also made the decision to change the goalkeeper to prepare for the penalty shootout, but the script was completely different from this time. In that game, Kepa was Chelsea's starting goalkeeper and performed quite well in the regular 90 minutes and extra time, leaving the powerful Manchester City with no success.
However, when Sarri made a substitution adjustment and was ready to replace the substitute goalkeeper Caballero who was good at saving points, he was rejected by Kepa, and the Spanish goalkeeper insisted on staying on the field, allowing Sarri to be angry off the field and never go down, and in the end, Sarri had no choice but to withdraw the substitution plan. In the penalty shootout, Kepa saved Sane's penalty, but Jonginho and David Luiz missed penalties in succession, leaving Chelsea with no chance to win the cup. After the game, Kepa was fined a week and publicly apologized within the team, which was obviously a painless punishment.
Now that time has passed, Chelsea's main goalkeeper has become Eduard Mendy. In this morning's game, Mendy performed remarkablely, giving a total of 6 wonderful saves, making the prestigious Reds attack trident fruitless. However, before the penalty shootout began, Tuchel made a substitution adjustment, Kepa put on the line to replace Mendy, for the manager's decision, Mendy was a little depressed but still chose to accept. Unfortunately, Kepa, who was in danger, did not bring miracles and kicked the Blues' championship trophy.
After the game, Blues coach Tuchel took the initiative to take responsibility, saying that Kepa spent more effort on penalties than Mendy, and the substitution was a decision he made himself, but he did not expect to eventually need Kepa to take the penalty. If there is a need to take responsibility, the responsibility is absolutely his, and has nothing to do with Kepa.
However, for Kepa, the loss of this game only shows that he really has no fate with the League Cup, and does not mean that he does not have the strength to play the main force. Although Edward Mendy is like a mountain pressing on his way to the main force, if this pressure can be turned into motivation, Kepa's road ahead is still bright, after all, he is only 27 years old.