Steven Gerrard was in tears at the end of the Carling Cup Final after
seeing his team lose 3-2, and to further rub salt in the wound he
scored the opener for Chelsea with an own goal that maybe should have
been saved by Dudek.
Gerrard was obviously downhearted after the defeat, but tried to rally
his team mates and the fans: "We just have to pick ourselves up now and
play for other things. It’s a tough day for us but we have to get over
it."
Liverpool had gone ahead after less than a minute, and hung on until
there were just 12 minutes left, but in the end the effort expended in
holding on for so long meant Liverpool were more tired than their
opponents. Gerrard said:
"We scored early, maybe too early, and then tried to run the clock
down. We were ten minutes away from winning the Cup ourselves but
credit to Chelsea, they played well. It’s obviously very painful for me
to score the own goal. It’s
been a bad day for me and the team but we have to pick ourselves up now
and stay strong."