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Chelsea coach Thomas Tuchel refused to blame substitute goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga for his team’s EFL Cup final loss to Liverpool, insisting he has “no regrets” after the defeat.
After an absorbing two hours of football saw both teams have goals disallowed in a scoreless draw, the first 21 kicks of the penalty shoot-out were successful, before Kepa hammered his over the crossbar to hand Liverpool a first domestic cup since 2012.
The Spain international had replaced Edouard Mendy from the bench deep into extra time with the aim of winning Chelsea the shoot-out, having excelled in the same scenario during a Super Cup victory over Villarreal last August.
Although Kepa’s terrible penalty sailed into the Wembley stands to deal Chelsea their second domestic cup final loss under Tuchel, the German refused to apportion any blame to his player after the match.
“I feel bad for him but [there is] no blame”, Tuchel said. “If you want to blame someone, blame me. I take the decisions and I don’t take them to be the hero.
“We took the decision like we did last time [in the Super Cup] in the penalty shoot-out.
“Everybody knows how good he is. Unfortunately, he could not save the penalties, which were brilliantly taken.”
The Blues boss said to Sky Sports: “We did it before with Kepa, he is slightly better in penalty saving and that is why I made the decision. It is unusual that all 11 players need to shoot, he took it [his penalty] a bit too quickly.
“Sometimes these things can turn against you, but you make [the decisions] when they need to be made, not after, when people can judge you.
“Football can be a brilliant game and it was a brilliant game, no worries and no regrets.”
Tuchel also highlighted Romelu Lukaku’s disallowed extra-time goal as a crucial moment in an absorbing contest, disagreeing with the decision to rule the Belgium forward fractionally offside.
“We gave everything and it was a brilliant match of football,” he said. “The disallowed goal for Romelu is a very close call, there are bad feelings about this call.
“You need a bit of luck, we scored three times and had big chances, they had big chances, it was a fair result all the way, a draw.”
