Liverpool beat Chelsea in shootout as Barco, Emegha and Fofana miss

LiverpoolLiverpoolPremier League · England beat ChelseaChelseaEngland in a penalty shootout on Wednesday, with Valentín Barco, Emanuel Emegha and Wesley Fofana all failing to convert for Chelsea. The defeat is the latest entry in a long sequence of Chelsea players missing from the spot when these two clubs are separated by a decider.

Barco, Emegha and Fofana join a list that already carried some considerable names: Arjen Robben, Geremi, Tammy Abraham, César Azpilicueta, Mason Mount and, on one occasion, the goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga. All of them are reported to have missed in shootouts against Liverpool.

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Nineteen years of Chelsea misses against Liverpool

Ank kumar · CC BY-SA 4.0

Before Wednesday, Chelsea players had missed from 12 yards in four consecutive post-match deciders against Liverpool, a run reported to span 19 years and four different competitions. The sequence has survived changes of manager, changes of squad and changes of competition.

That durability is the notable part. Shootouts are usually described as somewhere close to a coin toss, decided as much by nerve on the night as by anything a coaching staff can control. A record this one-sided, maintained across four separate competitions and nearly two decades, is not the sort of thing that is easily explained away.

The three who missed this time

Ank kumar · CC BY-SA 4.0

• Valentín Barco
• Emanuel Emegha
• Wesley Fofana

All three missed in the same shootout, which makes Wednesday's defeat the single largest addition to the sequence. Whatever else the night produced, it ended with three more Chelsea names attached to a record the club would rather not keep extending.

What the record means

It is worth being precise about what this is and is not. It is a persistent pattern in one specific circumstance — a shootout between these two clubs — not evidence that Chelsea are routinely poor from the spot, and not a tactical failing that can be fixed by a change of approach. Penalties taken under that pressure are close to the least repeatable part of the game, which is what makes a run of this length interesting rather than diagnostic.

The practical consequence is simpler. Liverpool are through, Chelsea are out, and the shootout has again separated the sides in a way that a match over 90 minutes had not.

What is not yet known

Which competition the shootout took place in, the score at the end of normal time and the identities of the Chelsea players who converted their kicks are not yet clear. Nor has it been established whether one of the three misses was the decisive kick or whether the shootout was already settled when it was taken.

Neither club has commented publicly on the outcome of the shootout. No date has been announced for the next meeting between Liverpool and Chelsea, so the chance to add to the sequence may be some way off.