Jurgen Klopp won his seventh major cup competition as a manager as Virgil van Dijk's extra-time winner sealed the 2024 Carabao Cup for Liverpool.
Despite their injury crisis, 'Klopp's Kids' got the job done at Wembley, securing Liverpool a tenth League Cup win in the club's history.
The dramatic final was described as the "easily most special trophy I've ever won" by Klopp after the game, with the German still chasing three more before the season and his time Liverpool comes to an end.
The 56-year-old stunned the footballing world in January as he announced his decision to stand down as Liverpool manager at the end of the campaign, revealing he was 'running out of energy' after over eight years in the job.
While the Reds continue to battle on four fronts for an unprecedented quadruple, Klopp's legacy as one of the club's all-time greats is assured, whatever happens by the end of May.
The German has won every major honour available to him in his time at Anfield (bar the Europa League) and delivered both European and domestic success, while creating one of the best sides the Premier League has ever seen.
As well as lifting the Premier League title in 2019/20, Klopp has taken the Reds to ten major cup finals since taking over the club in the autumn of 2015, winning six.
It's a strong, if not perfect, record.
In contrast, prior to his time at Anfield, Klopp had competed in four finals, registering just one win.
In fact, after lifting the DFB-Pokal (German Cup) in his first ever final as manager at Dortmund, Klopp went on a run of six defeats, and even gained something of a reputation as perennial bridesmaid in the cups.
That all changed however with Liverpool's sixth European Cup, as Klopp's Reds saw off Tottenham 2-0 in Madrid in 2019.
Following that success, Klopp would go on to win five finals in a row, including a cup double in 2022, before breaking the run with defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League final.
Overall, Klopp has a record of seven wins in 14 major finals across his career.
Jurgen Klopp's full career record in major cup finals as a manager
Year | Competition | Score | Win/Loss |
---|---|---|---|
2012 | DFB-Pokal | Dortmund 5-2 Bayern Munich | Win |
2013 | Champions League | Dortmund 1-2 Bayern Munich | Loss |
2014 | DFB-Pokal | Dortmund 0-2 Bayern Munich | Loss |
2015 | DFB-Pokal | Dortmund 1-3 Wolfsburg | Loss |
2016 | League Cup | Liverpool 1-1 Man City (1-3 pens) | Loss |
2016 | Europa League | Liverpool 1-3 Sevilla | Loss |
2018 | Champions League | Liverpool 1-3 Real Madrid | Loss |
2019 | Champions League | Liverpool 2-0 Tottenham | Win |
2019 | UEFA Super Cup | Liverpool 2-2 Chelsea (5-4 pens) | Win |
2019 | Club World Cup | Liverpool 1-0 Flamengo | Win |
2022 | League Cup | Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea (11-10 on pens) | Win |
2022 | FA Cup | Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea (6-5 on pens) | Win |
2022 | Champions League | Liverpool 0-1 Real Madrid | Loss |
2024 | League Cup | Liverpool 1-0 Chelsea | Win |
* Does not include Community Shield or German Super Cup
With the win on Sunday, Klopp achieved an even 50/50 record overall in major finals across his career, though he'll hope to have more chances to up his win rate before he bids Liverpool farewell.
As Trent Alexander-Arnold recently expressed, the ideal goodbye present for the manager would be a trophy parade at the end of the 2023/24 season.
“Cruising round Liverpool in an open-top bus,” the vice-captain said. “That’s the fairytale ending that I think everyone hopes for and, for us players, that’s our motivation.”
“That was our motivation at the start of the season, that’s our motivation now. Even more so is to give the manager the send-off he’s deserved and he’s earned.”
“That’s kind of what our aim is, to be going around Liverpool in an open-top bus.”