Chelsea and Liverpool meet at Wembley on Sunday, with the first major piece of silverware of the season up for grabs in the Carabao Cup final.
Thomas Tuchel’s side beat Aston Villa, Southampton, Brentford and Tottenham to reach the final, while Jurgen Klopp’s team knocked out Norwich, Preston, Leicester and Arsenal along the way.
The two teams have already met and drawn twice in the Premier League this season, 1-1 at Anfield and 2-2 at Stamford Bridge, highlighting how close they have been matched.
It’s the Reds who are 10 points clear in the league table, however, with the Blues just recently regaining winning form after a sticky patch - and they do have a game in hand in that competition too.
Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the final.
When is the Carabao Cup final?
The League Cup final kicks off at 4:30pm GMT on Sunday, 27 February at Wembley Stadium.
Where can I watch it?
The match will be shown live on Sky Sports Main Event, Sky Sports Football and Sky Sports Ultra HD. Subscribers can stream the game via the Sky Go app. If you’re not a Sky customer you can grab a NOWTV Day Pass here to watch without a subscription. We may earn commission from some of the links in this article, but we never allow this to influence our content. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.
What is the team news?
Ben Chilwell is the only definite absentee for Chelsea, but there are fitness doubts over Mateo Kovacic, Hakim Ziyech and Reece James. All three should be fine to make the squad though, with James’ return from a long lay-off meaning he’s not likely to be in the XI. Thomas Tuchel has to decide whether to restore the out-of-form Romelu Lukaku to the line-up.
Liverpool are without Roberto Firmino, but Diogo Jota could make the bench after a return to outdoors training. Luis Diaz is therefore likely to start again in attack. Jurgen Klopp has already confirmed that Caoimhin Kelleher will play in goal rather than usual No1 Alisson Becker.
Confirmed line-ups
Chelsea XI: Mendy; Chalobah, Thiago Silva, Rudiger; Azpilicueta, Kante, Kovacic, Alonso; Mount Pulisic, Havertz
Liverpool XI: Kelleher, Alexander-Arnold, Van Dijk, Matip, Robertson, Fabinho, Henderson, Thiago, Diaz, Mane, Salah
Odds
Chelsea 27/11
Draw 23/10
Liverpool 11/8
Prediction
It will naturally be a tight occasion as matches between these two have been of late, but the Reds have the better recent form and more forwards on a fine scoring run - that could settle the difference. Chelsea 1-2 Liverpool.
