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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Mark Jones

Mason Mount's problem with Wembley after missing Carabao Cup final sitters vs Liverpool

Chelsea will hope for at least one return to Wembley this season in the FA Cup, and if they reach both the semi-final and final then they'll have two.

But Mason Mount might get cold feet at the thought of that.

The Blues' England midfielder had a day to forget on Sunday as Chelsea lost the Carabao Cup final to Liverpool, with Mount missing clear chances either side of half-time.

First Mount somehow skewed a shot wide of Caoimhin Kelleher's post in the closing stages of the first half, after he'd been put through impressively by Christian Pulisic.

And Pulisic was again the provider early in the second period when Mount broke the usually solid Liverpool offside trap, went one-on-one with Kelleher and placed his shot against the inside of the upright.

That second miss led to Thomas Tuchel beating the ground in frustration, and extended Mount's awful recent record in finals at the national stadium.

As an England regular of course the 23-year-old has won and impressed at Wembley before, but he has increasingly come unstuck there on the biggest stages.

When on loan at Derby under Frank Lampard in 2019 he suffered Championship playoff final defeat to Aston Villa.

Mount then returned to Chelsea and became a regular under Lampard there too, with the pair experiencing defeat in the behind closed doors FA Cup final against Arsenal in 2020.

Next came another FA Cup final under Tuchel for Chelsea last year, when a solitary Youri Tielemans strike secured the trophy for underdogs Leicester.

Mount then played the full 90 minutes and the first nine of extra-time in England's Euro 2020 final loss to Italy on penalties last year, and featured for the first 74 minutes of Sunday's Carabao Cup final loss to Liverpool, meaning that he's still to win a domestic final despite successes in the Champions League, Club World Cup and European Super Cup.

Chelsea boss Tuchel refused to blame Mount's misses for the loss, instead focusing on Liverpool's qualities and Romelu Lukaku's disallowed goal.

Mount couldn't believe he'd missed the chances (Action Images via Reuters)

"We have to accept the quality of the opponent, this is maybe the most dangerous attacking side at the moment in Europe. They are full of individual quality and playing at a high rhythm," he said.

"So defending like this, playing like this at this level made me very proud today. I saw a brilliant match of football over 120 minutes and we played a huge part of it.

"I have the feeling we created a bit more, were a bit more there, but maybe that is also subjective. This game could've easily gone either way. You need a bit of luck and momentum to win it. If you look at the line that is drawn on the Romelu goal, it's a bit of a weird line where it's drawn and then to make the decision that it's offside, but that's it.

"We can't have any regrets. I am proud of the performance and the team. There are a lot of good things and I told the guys we should not lose sleep about this. It was an entertaining match of football that was full of intensity and I am very, very happy to have had the chance to be part of this. It was excellent."

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