When Liverpool beat Chelsea in the 2024 Carabao Cup final, manager Jürgen Klopp branded the victory the "most special" of his storied career.

He did so not because of the stature of the competition, nor because of the prize money on offer, but because of the nature of his team's triumph. With Liverpool's squad decimated by injury, Klopp was forced to field several academy players at Wembley, and his team defied expectations to win 1-0 thanks to an extra-time header from captain Virgil van Dijk .

While Klopp and his squad were lavished with praise, Mauricio Pochettino's expensively assembled Chelsea side were ridiculed, with Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville infamously dubbing the Blues "billion-pound bottle-jobs" on account of their heavy transfer spending over recent years.

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