Reaction'Unreal' - Trent Alexander-Arnold on completing the set of major trophies
The Emirates FA Cup claimed on Saturday represents the sixth piece of silverware of the Scouser’s Reds career, following the Premier League, Champions League, FIFA Club World Cup, Carabao Cup and UEFA Super Cup.
“Unreal, to be honest,” was Alexander-Arnold’s reply when Liverpoolfc.com asked him how it feels to have landed every trophy with his club by the age of just 23.
“I was sat there today and last night thinking this is the only one I’ve got left now to complete the set and to do it is an amazing feeling.
“It’s something that I’ve dreamed of and it’s something that not many players can say they have done, so to be able to do it with this amazing club and this amazing team is a special feeling for me.”
Read on for the rest of our post-match interview with the No.66 at Wembley…
How difficult was the game? Liverpool had a great start but Chelsea came back into it…
Honestly, it’s always tight when we play Chelsea. We just can’t get the better of each other, it always comes down to pens and draws. That’s four draws now [this season], it’s rare, so it’s hard to beat them but we were resilient and we’ve got the job done when it matters. We’ve kept calm under pressure and slotted our pens.
Resilience was key wasn’t it? You lost Mo Salah to injury but you adapted and responded well…
We made changes. Things didn’t go our way during the game but we adapted, we dealt with it and we played the game how we needed it to be played. I think we didn’t let them do what they wanted to do. As the game went on they kind of took more control of the game, but that first half was again very good from us and we just couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net. We had the chances to do so but couldn’t quite do it at the end of the day but that doesn’t matter to us.
You slotted in your penalty again in the shootout. That must be up there with the most tense moment of your career?
It is, to be fair. They are tense but you get up there, you are focused, you know which way you are going to go and you commit to it. That’s all you can really do, to be honest, and try to hit the ball well. It’s easy to over-complicate things but you are 12 yards out, just strike the ball well and you’ve got a decent chance of scoring, so I think that’s what I did today.
Finally, a word on Kostas Tsimikas, who came off the bench and scored the winning penalty…
Unbelievable! It just shows the depth that we’ve got, lads coming in. The way we did it in the Carabao and now today. It’s amazing, the changes we’ve made, the players coming on and doing their job unbelievably well. It’s an amazing group and it’s a special season.
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