Jurgen Klopp savours 'most special trophy' after Carabao Cup win

Liverpool's Carabao Cup final victory over Chelsea was manager Jurgen Klopp’s "most special trophy" after they overcame more injury adversity to win 1-0 at Wembley after extra time.

Already without 11 first-team players, they lost Ryan Gravenberch to an ankle problem after half-an-hour and finished the match with four academy players on the pitch but the youngsters held out long enough for captain Virgil van Dijk to head the 118th-minute winner.

"In more than 20 years it is easily the most special trophy I have ever won. It is absolutely exceptional," said Klopp, who is leaving the club at the end of the season and looked emotional on the pitch at the final whistle.

"Sometimes people ask me if I’m proud of things and it’s really tricky, I wish I could feel pride more often but tonight is an overwhelming feeling.

"I was proud of everyone involved in everything here: I was proud of our people (fans) for the way they pushed us, I was proud of the staff for creating this kind of atmosphere surrounding where these boys can just do what they are best at.

"I was proud of our academy, I was proud of my coaches, I was proud of so many things. It was completely overwhelming.

"It was nothing to do with it being maybe my last game at Wembley.

"Can you create in football stories which definitely nobody will ever forget? It’s so difficult because 'this’ happened before, ‘this’ happened before: this tonight, if you find the same story with academy players coming on against a top side and still winning it, I’ve never heard of it.

"I loved it. What we see here today is so exceptional. We might never see again. Not because I’m on the sidelines but because these things don’t happen in football.

"I got told there’s an English phrase ‘you don’t win