Kepa's penalty miss in the League Cup final defeat to Liverpool was 'karma' says Frank Leboeuf

Former French international Frank Leboeuf has claimed it was 'karma' that caused Kepa Arrizabalaga to miss the crucial spot kick in Sunday's Caraboa Cup final.

After a pulsating 0-0 draw between Chelsea and Liverpool at Wembley, the game went to a shootout to decide the winner.

The spot kicks were just as remarkable as the game itself with every single outfield player scoring.

With the score at 10-10, it was time for the goalkeepers and while Liverpool's Caoimhin Kelleher converted his, Kepa blazed his well over the bar.

To make the situation worse for the Spaniard, he had been brought on minutes before the end of the game to replace Edouard Mendy who had had an excellent game. Kepa is supposedly better than Chelsea's number one at saving penalties and while this may have worked for Thomas Tuchel in the Super Cup final, it backfired this time round.

Kepa did not get near to stopping one of the spot kicks before blazing his own attempt well over the bar.

Criticism of the decision was mixed with Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp hoping the incident would stop managers from bringing on a specialist keeper late on.

Ex-Chelsea centre back Frank Leboeuf has joined in on the criticism and said it was karma for another controversial League Cup final incident Kepa was involved in.

In 2019, the Spaniard defied his manager Maurizio Sarri's orders by refusing to be subbed against Manchester City.

That game also went to penalties and Chelsea were again on the losing end.

Leboeuf has now claimed Kepa's Wembley woe was 'karma' for his actions in 2019.

‘I don’t want to be harsh on Kepa but maybe it’s karma stuff,’ Leboeuf told ESPN.

‘Remember that he didn’t want to be substituted some years ago on a penalty shootout and Chelsea lost.

‘It’s maybe what somebody up there decided to punish him about.

‘I think it’s a little bit unfair to Edouard Mendy who made his national team win in AFCON, stopping some penalties in the shootout.

‘Nothing is fair, nothing is unfair, it’s just a decision made by the technical staff and players just have to accept it.’

Unlike Redknapp, Leboeuf did not blame Tuchel for the decision to bring on Kepa.

‘We cannot really criticise the technical staff for taking that decision and getting all the responsibilities of it,' the Frenchman said.

‘It wasn’t the turning point. The turning point was that Kepa is not a penalty shooter, it’s not that he’s not a good goalkeeper.

‘The penalty that he shot was horrendous, it was like a rugby [conversion]. So, the conversion was successful.’