Liverpool's hopes of matching Manchester United's 1999 treble-winning season were dashed as Chelsea dumped the Reds out of the FA Cup.
With Liverpool having already effectively wrapped up the Premier League title, the prospect of a treble campaign remained on the cards as Jurgen Klopp's side headed to west London on Tuesday evening.
The Merseyside club's unspoken dream of matching Arsenal's 'Invincibles' unbeaten Premier League campaign of 2003/04 has already fallen by the wayside as Watford beat the Reds 3-0 at Vicarage Road on Saturday.
Klopp named a surprisingly strong starting lineup at Stamford Bridge with Sadio Mane and Virgil van Dijk included, and Liverpool looked impressive in attack early on.
However, Adrian gifted Chelsea the opening goal moments after making a fine stop - the Liverpool goalkeeper spilling Willian's shot into the corner of his net.
Liverpool could not find a route back, and Ross Barkley's second-half effort earned a deserved 2-0 win for Chelsea.
The result means Liverpool cannot now match United's treble-winning campaign of 1998/99, and face a fight to defend their Champions League crown.
Having lost 1-0 to Atletico Madrid in the first leg in the Spanish capital, Liverpool must overturn that scoreline at Anfield.
Lebbceopt
459
First of all we had not implicated that we are going for the trebble and thus for Klopp fielding the young boys in previous match clearly indicated long time ago that FA Cup was not a priority. His priority was and still is the league and mabe for bonus the chamlions league. let us not forget the wonders this team achived in the past two seasons whereas your so called other big four could not accomplish
Impartial1
386
I am a Chelsea fan and I am delighted for a victory over one of the very best team in Europe But I believe Liverpool have their goals, they have already won the league and from the onset they didn’t fight for the FA Cup so I would not read too much Liverpool loss