Tearful hero Willy Caballero broke Liverpool’s hearts and revealed his shoot-out hat-trick of saves was pure instinct.
When a dramatic Capital One Cup final went to penalties, the odds favoured Liverpool – who had never lost a final shootout and whose German manager, Jurgen Klopp, comes from the spiritual home of sudden death from the spot.
But stand-in Caballero saved three penalties in a row from Lucas Leiva, Philippe Coutinho and Adam Lallana to hand outgoing Man City manager Manuel Pellegrini his third trophy in as many seasons.
Pellegrini had stuck to his guns, fulfilling his promise to pick Caballero as specialist cup goalkeeper ahead of England No.1 Joe Hart.
And on Oscars night, the gong for best supporting keeper went to Caballero, 34, a £6million signing from Malaga, who played in every round and said: “It’s fantastic for all the blue people. I tried to watch all the penalties last night but my intuition got me through.
“It was a hard week for me but we had a talk that we could do it, and this is a first trophy for me and my family in Argentina.”
Pellegrini, who will make way for Pep Guardiola this summer at the Etihad, said: “I’m not happy because we’ve won a trophy in my final season, but I am happy for Caballero because he deserves this moment.
“I’m also happy for Joe Hart, who is not only a great keeper and a good person but he was shouting and supporting Willy during the shootout.
“I prefer to lose the final than to go back on my word. There was never any chance Willy was not going to play. I think my word is more important than football.
“Willy is a very good goalkeeper. Fortunately he waited until the very last moment, he never tried to guess which way they were going to shoot.
“But I think we deserved to win the game with less work from Willy because he did not have a save to make in the first 90 minutes.”
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