Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga has admitted that he is not proud of the Carabao cup final row he had with former boss Maurizio Sarri, Sarri has since left Chelsea to manage perennial Serie A champions Juventus.
The Spanish Goalkeeper refused to be substituted at the end of the League Cup final against Manchester City last season, triggering an angry confrontation with Maurizio Sarri on the sideline.
Kepa went down with what looked like a cramp during extra time of the cup final, Sarri as a result prepared reserve goalkeeper Willy Caballero to come on, at which point Kepa quickly rose to his feet and waved to the bench he was fine to continue but Sarri and his assistant Gianfranco Zola insisted that Kepa come off the pitch. Kepa refused to be taken off and Sarri reluctantly had to withdraw the substitution. Sarri was livid at Kepa and had to be calmed down by Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger after extra time.
Kepa continued as number one in a season where Chelsea finished in the top four and won the Europa League.
The 24-year-old recently said in an interview ‘I’m not proud of what happened, I lived in a storm that week,‘
‘It was a situation that I hadn’t lived and that came to me in a flash. Everything went very fast, with many keystrokes.”I apologized, he explained to me what he had felt. Internally, it was finished the next day,’ said Kepa.
‘It was an unpleasant situation, but we left in a good way and from there we made a great end of the season.’
