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Jordan Henderson has revealed Liverpool were confident of Kostas Tsimikas scoring the crucial penalty against Chelsea in their FA Cup final win on May 14. The Reds captain added that the team had been practicing penalties in training and were confident.
Liverpool beat Chelsea 6-5 on penalties at Wembley as Tsimikas scored the winning penalty to secure the FA Cup trophy for the Reds after 16 years. The match ended goalless after 120 minutes of play as both sides were guilty of wasting some good opportunities.
The Reds have now won both domestic cup finals against Chelsea in similar fashion this season, beating them in the Carabao Cup final on penalties in February.
Henderson spoke to the media after the FA Cup triumph and claimed the players had full confidence in Tsimikas. He said (via Liverpool Echo):
"He's been good on penalties. We've been practicing them and I was full of confidence when he stepped up."
Kostas Tsimikas on scoring for Liverpool in the FA Cup final against Chelsea
Kostas Tsimikas was over the moon after scoring the winning penalty for Liverpool in the FA Cup final against Chelsea. The Greek left-back came on in extra time as a replacement for Andy Robertson.
He stepped up to take the seventh penalty of the game for Liverpool after Alisson Becker saved Mason Mount's effort and made no mistake. Speaking to BBC Two after the game, Tsimikas said:
"We gave it absolutely everything. Big congratulations to the boys. We have to celebrate hard. But tomorrow is the next day, we still have a lot to do. We have the games in the Premier League and we have the big final. It's very, very special for me. The manager asked me which number I want. I say number seven. He asks me why so far? I say I want number seven. And number seven gave me the opportunity to win the game."
He added:
"I choose the right side and I score. And I am very happy with that. We want to win. Our goal from the start of the season was to go for it, hopefully at the end we are happy. I am not the 'Greek Scouser', I am the 'Scouser Greek'. We have to celebrate now, but still in our minds we have the upcoming games. We have to be 100% focused if we want to achieve our goals."
Jurgen Klopp's side face Real Madrid in the Champions League final on May 28. Before that, however, they have two crunch Premier League games against Southampton and Wolverhampton Wanderers. They are still in the hunt for the league title as they are behind leaders Manchester City by three points.
