Jurgen Klopp heaped praise on his young Liverpool stars after the Reds qualified for the League Cup final following a 1-1 draw at Fulham.
They will now take on Chelsea at Wembley on February 25 in a repeat of the 2022 final.
Klopp has used the competition this season as a chance to blood some of his up-and-coming youngsters, including Jarell Quansah and Caoimhin Kelleher, while Conor Bradley continued at right-back due to Trent Alexander-Arnold’s injury.
And the manager says those starlets have earned their shot at some silverware next month.
“I told the boys never, ever in life you should take for granted that you’re part of a football team who can win trophies,” Klopp told Sky Sports.
“That means you have to qualify for finals. We are obviously the lucky ones that we are a part of it. What the boys did tonight was again exceptional.
“I’m really happy with so many things. In the end, the only thing that counts is we’re through. It’s a big night.
“For the very young ones who’ve played an incredible role in the whole journey, it’s so cool to see them in the dressing room now. It’s fantastic.
“This was not a night to shine or to play a bit of fancy football. This was a night to qualify for a final. I heard the press conference of Marco [Silva] yesterday on how much it means to Fulham.
“We come here, we have to prove that point as well and we did. These boys want to win. These boys want to qualify for big, big finals, and we did tonight. It’s absolutely special.”
In reaching Wembley, Liverpool have the chance to extend their record tally of nine League Cup titles, the most recent of which came when they beat Chelsea on penalties two years ago.
Injured Reds star Mohamed Salah faces a fitness race to be back in time for the clash with Mauricio Pochettino’s side after picking up an injury at the Africa Cup of Nations.
The Egyptian has just over a month to get fit for the game, which Klopp is urging his players to put to the back of their minds as they continue to challenge for the Premier League title.
“Everything’s great about the Carabao Cup final,” he continued. “The only problem is that it’s in the middle of the season, so we cannot focus on that final. We have a week, hopefully, or maybe three days, I don’t even know what the game is before, to focus on that.
“Around that, we have to be focused on all the other competitions as well, and that’s what we’ll do.
“I think it’s around about four weeks or so [away], so what does that mean? 12 Premier League games in-between? And an FA Cup game! It’s all fine.
“It’s really perfect. It’s so difficult. Wembley’s a special place. I’m really happy for everybody involved that we can give the boys that experience again.”
Fulham, on the other hand, fell agonisingly short of reaching their first ever League Cup final.
They also miss out on a return to Wembley, where they last played when beating Brentford in the 2019-20 Championship play-off final.
Despite that, Marco Silva found plenty of positives in his side’s performance.
“I have to be proud of the way we played most of the games in this competition and the way the players fought always until the end,” he said.
“Overall, it was not our best performance at all. We didn’t perform at the level that normally we do at home. [We were] Probably too emotional for the game.
“I believe that Liverpool played better than us, but our commitment and attitude was there.”
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