Mane’s FA Cup final penalty miss ’50 per cent’ my fault – Klopp

The Reds repeated their shoot-out triumph in the Carabao Cup to once more deny Chelsea silverware.

Jurgen Klopp revealed that Liverpool’s FA Cup final victory over Chelsea was aided by a team of neuroscientists, while taking partial responsibility for Sadio Mane’s failure to score from the spot.

The Reds repeated their Carabao Cup shoot-out heroics on Saturday as they squeezed past Chelsea 6-5, after the final had ended in a 0-0 stalemate.

Mane was the only one of Klopp’s charges to miss his kick, and the manager insists that their precision from the spot is no accident.

What did Klopp say about Liverpool’s penalty prowess?
“That we could make it is absolutely out of this world, it’s unbelievable, it’s massive, it’s game number 60 or whatever in a very, very intense season, and putting out a performance like this is absolutely incredible,” Klopp beamed to reporters after receiving his first FA Cup winner’s medal.

“But most important – really most important – I have to say all respect to Chelsea. What a team, what a performance, in the end we all know a penalty shootout is a lottery. But we did it again.

“We work together with a company – four guys, their name is Neuro11; I got in contact with them two years ago I think, got aware of it.

“One of them is a neuroscientist and he said, ‘We can train penalty shooting.’ ‘Really?’ I said, ‘Sounds interesting, come over.’ German guy, we met, we worked together and this trophy is for them obviously as well, like the Carabao Cup was.”

How did Klopp influence Mane’s miss?
Mane could not find a way past his Senegal team-mate, Chelsea number one Edouard Mendy, and Klopp admitted that he may have had a hand in the forward’s missed kick.

“Sadio’s penalty is for sure at least 50 per cent my responsibility because you have to let the boys do what they think they do, but with him I said, ‘He knows you exactly, the goalie, so do the other way around.’,” he revealed.

“How very often in my life, I realised it’s better to shut up! But we still made it and honestly it means the world to us.

“It’s massive. It was difficult. The first 25 minutes were the best 25 minutes we played ever against Chelsea, we played an incredible game, but we didn’t score.”

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