Chelsea midfielder Moises Caicedo was lucky to escape punishment after fouling Liverpool’s Ryan Gravenberch in last night’s Carabao Cup final.

With Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez and Dominik Szoboszlai all absent from the final at Wembley, Liverpool had to play with a patchwork squad and the situation became even more tragic for coach Jurgen Klopp and his team when Gravenberch was forced to leave the field at the end of the match. 28 minutes after the collision with Caicedo.

Liverpool fans were very angry when referee Chris Kavanagh did not give any penalty to Caicedo and VAR, despite reviewing the situation, did not change the decision.

Caicedo stepped on Gravenberch’s ankle, forcing the Dutch midfielder to leave the field on a stretcher. The VAR team reviewed the incident but decided there would be no penalty for the Ecuadorian player.

Caicedo’s stomp caused Gravenberch to leave the field on a stretcher

This is explained by the fact that Caicedo’s foul was considered dangerous but not serious and the VAR referees did not think it was necessary to change the referee’s original decision.

If a yellow card is not given from the beginning, VAR cannot contribute ideas to give a yellow card. However, Caicedo was indeed lucky as he had previously fouled Wataru Endo.

Outside the field, Liverpool coach Klopp was very angry with this decision and he was even more angry when immediately afterward, Chelsea almost took the lead thanks to Raheem Sterling, who was also considered offside by VAR.

In the second half, Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk was also denied a goal because of offside. However, the Dutch defender still scored the winning goal for The Reds in the final minutes of the second extra period.

Regarding the incident involving Caicedo and Gravenberch, former Premier League referee Mike Dean shared his opinion on Sky Sports: “I think he (Caicedo) got his foot stuck in Gravenberch’s leg, not intentionally.”