Wembley glory: What the papers say
Liverpool claimed their first trophy since 2006 in dramatic fashion on Sunday. Here is how the journalists and columnists who were at Wembley summed it up.
"Need a ticket, will donate a kidney," said the sign a Liverpool supporter held up on Wembley Way yesterday. If he got into the stadium, he would have eventually received a reward for his chutzpah as his team saw off Cardiff City on penalties to win the Carling Cup. However, it would have been a different organ whose strength was tested in the two hours of this tense, atmospheric final. For Liverpool made it uneasy for any supporters with weak hearts. They lived on the edge too often for their fans' liking. In the end, it was the heart that saw them through. A trophy in the Anfield cabinet is satisfying after six empty years, a period in which the club have changed hands twice. It has been the most unstable period since Bill Shankly arrived in 1959. Kenny Dalglish has worked wonders since taking over as manager from Roy Hodgson just over a year ago. The Scot found a team five points off the bottom of the table and devoid of any confidence. Few would have imagined he would bring silverware back to the club so quickly. Even more than the trophy, he has brought stability and unity that was inconceivable little more than 12 months ago.
Tony Evans, The Times
Liverpool have reacquainted themselves with the business of winning trophies at Wembley. For a club with their ambitions, it has been too long and they will cherish the moments of jubilation that followed this latest reminder that, when it comes to penalty shootouts, they are only just behind Germany in terms of efficiency. This was the fifth time they have lifted a trophy because of their superiority from 12 yards and, in total, they have lost only two out of 13 shootouts. Some of the club's greatest moments have been shrouded in this form of high drama and it felt like they had been merely toying with everyone's emotions that they won despite missing their first two.
Daniel Taylor, The Guardian
It might seem a strong statement to some, but Liverpool's Carling Cup success could prove to be a defining moment in the club's history. As Arsenal discovered when they lost to Birmingham City in last year's final, the difference between winning and losing at Wembley, at this stage of the season, can be monumental. This time last year, Arsenal were chasing four trophies and ended up with nothing after losing to Birmingham. The malaise has extended into this season, with Arsène Wenger's team now battling just to qualify for the Champions League. In contrast, Liverpool's penalty shoot-out victory against Cardiff will have given Kenny Dalglish's team an incredible injection of confidence, belief and crucial momentum at what is approaching crunch time in the season. For a club of Liverpool's stature, the priority this season has to be qualification for the Champions League and I believe they simply had to win at Wembley to sustain that ambition.
Alan Hansen, Daily Telegraph
The League Cup was never easy, not even in the days when Kenny Dalglish, Ian Rush, Ronnie Whelan and company made it part of the Liverpool trophy room's fixtures and fittings on their routine away days to the stadium they liked to call Anfield South. That was when Liverpool were England's invincibles, collecting 11 trophies in the four years from '81. Yesterday was as unending as ever on the fingernails, and though it showed Dalglish needs time to return his club to those kind of heights, he can at least reflect today that he has taught them how to be winners again. "The trains are now running back to Liverpool Lime Street," the stadium announcer declared after 90 minutes had passed, though the sight of Dalglish, a players' manager, out on the pitch leading directions, suggested that no-one was going anywhere. The route back to Wembley was tortuous from the start. But after the strife of the past few years a broken-down maintenance train an hour south-east of Liverpool was not going to stop the fans. Emerging into the Wembley Way sunlight, many were training digital cameras on the spectacle for their first time. We were not far out of the Polaroid era when the club were last at Wembley in 1996.
Ian Herbert, The Independent
The old place has changed a bit since a Liverpool line-up last graced its fabled turf. But while the traditional twin towers have become a space age arch, the 39 steps have become 107 and the lucky tunnel end is just a fond memory, there was one constant - Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish. Yesterday was his 28th visit to Wembley Stadium. And he has experienced the anguish of losing just four times. In the post-match press conference he denied he had a tear in his eye during the frantic celebrations. "You should have gone to Spec Savers!" he joked. But he was clearly emotional. He has done as much as anybody to make Liverpool FC winners again. Of course, he will play down his role in that self deprecating way which looks affected, but is undeniably sincere. He is a legend, an icon...and a winner. Just like his Liverpool FC team at Wembley yesterday.
David Prentice, The Echo
Even before Steven Gerrard and Liverpool had started hauling their aching limbs up the flights of stairs leading to the Royal Box to collect the Carling Cup, the most important step had been taken already. That it came after a gut-wrenching, epic final, full of the twists and sub-plots that heighten the senses, merely added weight to Kenny Dalglish's belief that the first trophy is always the hardest. Liverpool are winners again.
Paul Joyce, The Daily Express
It is not the European Cup, it is not the FA Cup, and it is a long way from the Premier League, but after almost six years without the kind of trophy-winning moment that used to be a regular event at their club, this will do for now for Liverpool. And who would have thought at the start of the day it would take this much effort for Steven Gerrard to finally get his hands on the Carling Cup? What decided it in the end? Probably the factor that one had previously expected to make the difference in the original 90 minutes: Liverpool's superior class finally told. Kuyt, Stewart Downing and Glen Johnson all scored their penalties while only two of Malky Mackay's players were successful from the spot, culminating in the decisive miss from substitute Anthony Gerrard.
Sam Wallace, The Independent
As Steven Gerrard said, this epic encounter was always going to end in bitter disappointment for one of them. But this was football at its cruelest as well as its most dramatic for the Gerrard family. The younger of the two Gerrard cousins missed the decisive penalty and so enabled his father's brother's son (the one who is the Liverpool and possible England captain) to add another trophy to an already impressive collection. To the considerable credit of Steven, he sought out Anthony to offer a few words of consolation, as the Cardiff sub stood isolated and distraught in front of 40,000 ecstatic Liverpool supporters. Never had a Gerrard's misfortune been greeted with such joy by Liverpool.
Matt Lawton, Daily Mail