Darwin Nunez and Dominik Szoboszlai have Liverpool 'ban' lifted despite not playing in Chelsea win

Darwin Nunez and Dominik Szoboszlai have had a notorious ban at Liverpool lifted after the club’s Carabao Cup victory over Chelsea.

Virgil van Dijk’s last-minute winner saw Liverpool claim a dramatic 1-0 victory over Chelsea in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley on Sunday.

The Reds won the game despite the likes of Trent-Alexander Arnold, Mo Salah Nunez and Szoboszlai all being absent through injury.

Instead, the Anfield club were forced to field a team of youngsters, with Conor Bradley starting in defence, Harvey Elliott playing the full 120 minutes and Jayden Danns, James McConnell, Bobby Clark and Jarell Quansah all coming off the bench.

After claiming the win, all those youngsters, as well as senior stars including Nunez and Szoboszlai have had a ban lifted.

Upon arriving at Liverpool, Jurgen Klopp told his players they were not allowed to touch the iconic ‘This Is Anfield’ sign ahead of games until they had won a trophy.

Early on in his Liverpool tenure, the German manager said: "I’ve told my players not to touch the 'This Is Anfield' sign until they win something!

"It's a sign of respect. I touched it when I was manager of Borussia Dortmund, but we lost 4-0."

With the likes of Nunez and co claiming their first piece of silverware while on Merseyside, they are now permitted to touch the sign as they exit the tunnel at Anfield.

After the Carabao Cup victory, the Liverpool manager said: “What we see here today is exceptional. We might never see it again. These things don’t happen in football. I got told there’s an English phrase – you don’t win trophies with kids. I didn’t know that.

Jurgen Klopp had banned players from touching the 'This is Anfield' sign until they had won a trophy (Getty)

“In more than 20 years it is easily the most special trophy I have ever won. It is absolutely exceptional. Sometimes people ask me if I’m proud of things and it’s really tricky, I wish I could feel pride more often. But tonight is an overwhelming ­feeling.

“I was proud of everyone involved in everything here, I was proud of our people for the way they pushed us, I was proud of the staff for creating this kind of atmosphere where these boys can just do what they are best at.

“I was proud of our academy, I was proud of my coaches, I was proud of so many things.

“It was completely ­overwhelming. It had nothing to do with it being maybe my last game at Wembley. It was really because of how everybody contributed.

"Seeing the faces after the game of the kids, Jayden Danns … can you create football stories which definitely nobody will ever forget? It’s so difficult. If you find the same story with academy players coming on against a top, top side and still winning it, I’ve never heard of it.”

Topics: Liverpool, Carabao Cup, Darwin Nunez, Dominik Szoboszlai, Jurgen Klopp

Chris Byfield

Sport journalist with experience writing on football, rugby, boxing and the Olympics. I'm also a Crystal Palace fan. Please don't hold this against me.