Liverpool beat Chelsea 6-5 on penalties after a 1-1 draw at Anfield on Wednesday night, and the fan YouTubers on both sides had very different evenings. Liverpool are into the Carabao Cup quarter-finals, at home to Bournemouth. Chelsea are out, and their channels are less interested in Wesley Fofana's penalty than in the winger who never left the bench.
Both goals in normal time came from the spot. Morgan Rogers scored one for Chelsea after Ryan Gravenberch brought down Moises Caicedo, and Cody Gakpo equalised three minutes later after Fofana handled from a corner. In the shootout Valentin Barco hit the post, Kostas Tsimikas blazed over with the chance to win it, Mike Penders saved from Gravenberch and Giorgi Mamardashvili saved from the debutant Emmanuel Emegha. Joe Gomez scored. Fofana put his kick into the Kop. That's Liverpool's fifth straight shootout win over Chelsea.
Liverpool's rooms: relief first, then the Henderson question
At TheRedmenTV, Maych sounds like a man who has done this before. "What is it about us and Chelsea? And penalties," he asks, and admits it was "not a high quality game of football by any stretch". The bigger point is Jordan Henderson, back at Anfield in Chelsea blue. "I found the booing of Jordan Henderson distasteful," he says. It's the captain who lifted the title, and Maych would rather have clapped him off.
AnfieldAgenda does the marking and lands on one name. "There was only one star of that defense tonight," the ratings host says of Ronald Araujo, who gets a nine and a stat to go with it: "Ronald had 10" clearances. Mamardashvili gets 8.5 for the late save and the shootout stop. Gravenberch "had a stinker of a performance", gets a five, and the host still can't understand why he finished the game.
Adikastakes: through to the quarters, and absolutely furious about it
Adikastakes is the only man alive who can win a shootout against Chelsea and sound like he's been relegated. "An absolutely terrible horrible smelling performance," he says. He's even harder on Gravenberch, who he says "might as well have put on a Chelsea jersey tonight". Then he decides the competition is out to get him, because Manchester City are still in it. He does admit he is "a little bit happy that we won".
Chelsea's rooms: Fofana, Emegha and the Estêvão question
At BlueLionsTV it's less rage than tiredness. "We're out the Carabao Cup," he opens, and the season now feels like "Groundhog Day". He's honest about the last kick too: "none of us was expecting him to score that." He saves his praise for Penders, who made the saves that kept Chelsea in it.
DonCFC goes after Xabi Alonso's substitutions. "This was a game that was calling out for a spark, for magic," he says, and Estêvão, who Don calls one of the squad's best penalty takers, was an unused sub. "I'm sick and tired of this guy's in-game management," he adds. Only Penders, Levi Colwill and Marco Palestra get off lightly.
TheOtherSideOfTheCoin says the starting line-up "was stinky from the get-go". On Estêvão, he says it's "clear as daylight" that Alonso doesn't rate him. But he isn't calling for the sack yet: "I'm scared for Alonso, man. I'm scared for him. I want him to stay."
The argument: Liverpool lucky, Chelsea cursed?
Neither side played well, and both sets of channels admit it. Liverpool's rooms know they got away with one, and that Arsenal at the weekend is a far bigger test. Chelsea host Manchester United on Saturday lunchtime, and their channels are asking how a team chasing a cup left its best young winger on the bench for 90 minutes and 16 penalties. Fofana missed the last kick, but the Chelsea rooms are blaming Alonso.