Liverpool: James Milner's reaction to winning the toss for penalty shootout

The Carabao Cup final between Liverpool and Chelsea was settled by the lottery of a penalty shootout.

Well, we say ‘lottery’ but the meticulous preparation and planning for such an event mean that it’s far from just sheer luck.

After Liverpool were victorious in an epic penalty shootout, manager Jurgen Klopp revealed the side had been working closely with neuro11, a team of specialist neuroscientists.

“We work together with neuro11. In pre-season, you should have seen it. In the training camp, the boys (neuro11) are training set-pieces with the boys,” said Klopp.

“Each player went through a proper drill – psychological, and others, to do penalties, corners, free-kicks, but penalties as well.”

It probably wasn’t a surprise to see 11 perfectly struck penalties from Liverpool in the shootout at Wembley, then.

But there is still an element of ‘luck’ or fortune when it comes to penalty shootouts.

For example, you can’t control whether the shootout will take place at your end in front of your own supporters – or whether you go first or second.

In 2018, Dr Ignacio Palacio-Huerta of the London School of Economics analysed 1,000 penalties taken at previous World Cup and European Championships. He concluded that teams who take the first penalty win 60 per cent of shootouts, compared to 40 per cent won by teams who go second from the spot.

So when James Milner won the coin toss to go first, Liverpool’s chances of winning increased. But that wasn’t the only coin toss Milner won. He also won the toss to choose which end the penalties would take place.

After he had got lucky with that, Milner gave a little fist bump to his Liverpool teammates in the centre circle who were watching on. He also gave Chelsea captain, Jorginho, a