Gary Lineker has disagreed with Gary Neville over his comments about Liverpool’s Carabao Cup final win over Chelsea at Wembley. The Reds emerged victorious to claim the first trophy of the season thanks to Virgil van Dijk’s dramatic extra-time header.
Both sides had chances to win the game during normal time with Van Dijk and Raheem Sterling both seeing goals disallowed, while Caoimhín Kelleher made two excellent saves to deny Conor Gallagher and Cole Palmer. Liverpool eventually prevailed though, despite ending the match with three teenagers on the pitch amid an injury crisis.
Sky Sports commentator Neville didn’t feel sorry for Chelsea and said it should have won, remarking during the match: “It’s Klopp’s kids against the blue billion-pound bottle-jobs. For Chelsea, I’ve got no sympathy whatsoever.”
Lineker responded to Neville’s comments on The Rest Is Football Podcast and suggested: “I thought it was bit strong. Chelsea could have easily won that game. I thought Cole Palmer could have won the game but it was a brilliant save from Kelleher.”
Ally McCoist also defended Mauricio Pochettino’s side on talkSPORT. He said: “I think [calling Chelsea bottle jobs] is unfair. It’s strong. Chelsea could have won it. I think it’s extremely strong and wrong to say bottlejobs, but it does deserve criticism.”
“I mean the game could have gone either way,” McCoist added. “Liverpool’s disallowed goal, Jackson’s disallowed goal, which dear me, look how tight that was. And then you’ve got Van Dijk’s header, the game was on a knife edge and it was a flick of the coin.
“So, I’m certainly not going to be as critical of Chelsea and Pochettino as some of the pundits are. But, what an opportunity it was for him to get his first piece of silverware.”
Chelsea has spent huge sums of money on players since Todd Boehly took over Chelsea from Roman Abramovich in May 2022. But the Blues remain in 11th in the Premier League and have one last chance of qualifying for Europe through the FA Cup.
When asked about what Neville said, Pochettino replied: “I didn’t hear what he said, but if you compare the age of the two groups, I think it is similar. I have a good relationship with Gary and I don’t know if that’s how I can take this opinion. But I respect his opinion.
“Of course, we made a few changes with [Conor] Gallagher and [Ben] Chilwell in extra time, it is true we didn’t keep the energy of how we finished the second half. But for sure I feel proud. I feel proud of the players, I think they made a big effort.
