Thomas Tuchel has revealed Ross Barkley was brought on in the dying embers of extra-time at Wembley “purely for penalties” in the wake of Chelsea’s penalty shootout loss to Liverpool.
With Kai Havertz injured, Timo Werner not fit to feature and Romelu Lukaku ineffective, Tuchel had to juggle when it came to deploying a striker.
Hakim Ziyech and Ruben Loftus-Cheek were both brought on, with the latter operating as a centre-forward towards the end of the first-half of extra-time at £97.5m signing Lukaku’s expense.
Just 14 minutes after Loftus-Cheek’s introduction, however, Tuchel brought the England international off and replaced him with Barkley.
The former Everton midfielder has not played since the third-round win over Chesterfield in January, though scored his penalty in the shootout.
After the game, Tuchel said: “It was purely for penalties. Ruben has not a good history statistically and Ross has so it was purely for the penalties.”
