Liverpool players celebrate after edging out Middlesbrough in an epic 14-13 penalty shootout
Once in a while, the world of football manages to produce a match that lives long in one’s memory. The reason behind it’s elongated remembrance is obviously the amount of drama involved in it, but honestly speaking, memorable games are not that rare, historic games are. And on Tuesday night I was lucky enough to witness a football match that is not just memorable but also of historic importance.
Adam Reach scores for Boro to make the score 1-1
When Liverpool turned out to face Middlesbrough in the third round of the Capital One Cup, no one could have even imagined that we were going to see a marathon football game that lasted for almost three hours. No one would have expected to see the away team come back from behind twice, once in normal time and once in the dying minutes of the last half of extra time. Normal time saw the game finish at 1-1 and Liverpool looked to have secured the win when Suso scored in the 109th minute. A poor pass in the 120th minute from Raheem Sterling led to Kolo Toure shoving down Patrick Bamford of Middlesbrough in the penalty box. The Championship side were awarded a penalty and youngster Bamford made no mistake as he scored to put the score at 2-2. The penalty shootout that followed saw a total of 30 penalties being taken in total as Liverpool scored 14, Middlesbrough scored 13 while three attempts were missed. This goes down in the record books as the longest penalty shootout in the history of the League Cup and also equals the record for the longest penalty shootout in the history of English football that was set in a match between Brockenhurst and Andover Town in the Hampshire Senior Cup which ended 15-14. In fact, the teams were just a few penalties away from the world record of 33 penalties in a shootout that was set in the Namibian Cup in a game between KK Palace and Civics.
Check out the video below for some of the best moments from Tuesday night’s game.