Liverpool Beat Chelsea on Penalties as Barco's Stutter Costs Him

Liverpool have knocked Chelsea out of the Carabao Cup after a penalty shootout at Anfield on 28 October. The result ends Chelsea's run in the competition's last 16, and the tie was settled from the spot after it finished level.

Chelsea's Valentin Barco went first and was the first player to miss. The Argentina midfielder, signed from Strasbourg in August on a seven-year deal, began his run-up with a stutter. He skipped to one side, sent Liverpool goalkeeper Mamardashvili the wrong way, and then hit the post. That miss handed Liverpool's Kostas Tsimikas the chance to put his side through.

Chelsea's Emmanuel Emegha also had a penalty saved by Mamardashvili. Then came the decider. Wesley Fofana sent a sudden-death penalty high over the bar and into the Kop, the terrace behind the goal. Joe Gomez stepped up for Liverpool and scored the winner with a simple, straight run-up. Gomez had never scored a senior goal in 319 professional appearances.

The stutter, a pause or hitch in the run-up before a kick, has been the talk of the penalty world this year. Under FIFA rules, football's world governing body, a player can stop or feint, which means a fake movement meant to fool the keeper, during the run-up. The one thing they cannot do is do it directly before striking the ball. BBC Sport reported that 26 stutter penalties were taken at the summer's World Cup, and 11 of them were missed.

England's Harry Kane knows the pattern well. He missed a stuttering penalty that Croatia goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic saved in England's 4-2 win. Kane then scored the retake with a plain approach, after Livakovic was judged to have come off his line too early.

Chelsea's exit comes four days after a 0-2 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur on 24 October. For Barco, the night ended with a moment that will be replayed for a long time, but one miss does not settle a season.