Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga suffered penalty shootout disaster against Liverpool on Sunday with Edouard Mendy looking over him.
The Blues lost the Carabao Cup final in heartbreaking fashion having failed to just find that final touch in 120 minutes.
Mason Mount and Christian Pulisic both wasted huge chances whilst Chelsea had not one, not two but three goals disallowed.
The game went all the way to penalties, with Thomas Tuchel making a bold substitution in the final seconds of extra time.
Despite Edouard Mendy shining during the game, Tuchel hauled him off and brought on Kepa Arrizabalaga for the shootout.
The belief was that Arrizabalaga would be better for the shootout than Mendy – despite him saving a penalty in a shootout for Senegal against Egypt earlier this month.
In practice, it couldn’t have really gone much worse for Arrizabalaga.
Fabinho scored a Panenka against him. When he stood to one side of the goal to try and get into Virgil van Dijk’s head, the Liverpool star battered the ball straight at his direction and into the net.
All 11 Liverpool players – including goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher – stepped up and scored past Arrizabalaga, with the substitution failing to work.
Arrizabalaga then stepped up after 21 perfect penalties and ballooned his shot into the Liverpool fans, sparking wild scenes.
What fans may have missed is that just as Arrizabalaga was readying himself and preparing to shoot from 12 yards, Mendy was shown on the screen.
Looking a little nervous and anxious – as you can imagine in a penalty shootout – Mendy was shown for all to see, including Arrizabalaga.
You could hardly blame the Spaniard for being a little distracted at that, with the knowledge that a miss would spark a major narrative surrounding the substitution.
Mendy will of course have wanted his teammate to score and fire Chelsea to silverware glory, but it just wasn’t to be as Arrizabalaga ended up enduring a nightmare shootout.
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