A defender who has never scored for Liverpool won the shootout: Liverpool 1-1 Chelsea, 6-5 on penalties

Joe Gomez has played for Liverpool for years without scoring a goal in open play, so of course the night landed on him. Anfield, a Carabao Cup fourth round tie locked at 1-1, a shootout deep into sudden death, and the defender stepped up and rifled his kick into the top corner. One kick later Wesley Fofana sent Chelsea's last effort over the bar and into the Kop, and Liverpool were through, 6-5 on penalties, into the quarter finals. A game built entirely out of penalties got the ending it had been pointing at all night.

The goals in normal time arrived the same way, three minutes apart, after forty quiet ones. Ryan Gravenberch dived in on Moises Caicedo and the referee pointed to the spot; Morgan Rogers converted in the 40th minute to put Chelsea ahead. The lead barely had time to settle. Kostas Tsimikas swung in a corner, Fofana handled it, and Cody Gakpo levelled in the 43rd minute, his 11th goal in this competition. Andoni Iraola had made seven changes to his Liverpool side, Xabi Alonso's Chelsea had their moments, and the tie went in level at the break with both keepers beaten only from twelve yards.

The second half kept producing chances and refusing to produce a winner. Giorgi Mamardashvili kept out Marco Palestra in the 78th minute. At the other end Mike Penders denied Ronald Araujo and Bradley Barcola, and Levi Colwill blocked a Florian Wirtz effort from close range with ten minutes left, the kind of intervention that usually settles a cup tie one way or the other. Nothing settled. The Carabao Cup goes straight to penalties at this stage, no extra time, and at 1-1 the tie walked to the spot for a second time in one evening.

The shootout swung like it was trying to shake both teams off. Valentin Barco hit the post for Chelsea, then Tsimikas blazed over with the kick that would have won it for Liverpool on the spot. Jordan Henderson scored for Chelsea, Penders saved from Gravenberch, and suddenly Emanuel Emegha, on his Chelsea debut, stood over the kick that would have sent Chelsea through. Mamardashvili saved it. That left Gomez, and then Fofana, whose handball had given Liverpool their equaliser hours earlier in the story of the game, and whose miss into the Kop closed it. Five times these clubs have gone to a shootout now. Liverpool have won all five.

Our call is that this has stopped being luck and become part of the fixture. A shootout is a small sample by nature, but five straight wins over the same opponent, with different keepers and different takers cycling through, points at something structural: Liverpool plan for penalties, pick takers who want the walk, and treat the thing as a skill to be coached rather than a lottery to be survived. Chelsea, who led this tie and then held the winning kick in sudden death, have to find a way of thinking about twelve yards at Anfield that does not tighten up at the exact moment it matters. The draw sends Bournemouth to Anfield in the quarter finals, Iraola against his old club, which is a storyline of its own. Whoever comes next in this competition, though, now knows the terms. Beat Liverpool in ninety minutes, because the alternative keeps ending the same way.