That’s all for tonight. Thanks for your company, emails and sequel-based swordplay. Goodnight!
Updated
Virgil van Dijk’s reaction
It was quite obvious there was gonna be a second yellow. It was pretty clear, and then a minute later he scores the winner. Listen, it is what it is. [The referee] made a mistake in my opinion and I told him that. He thinks maybe he didn’t. It was quite obvious and everyone on the sideline knew it.
There’s a linesman there, there’s a fourth official, there’s VAR… and he doesn’t get a second yellow. I’m not saying this is the reason we lost, but
it effing well isit was a big moment in the game.We played against an intense team with good attacking players who keep running and make it difficult. We created opportunities – not really clear-cut chances in my opinion – but enough that we could have scored.
At times we could have done better. That’s part of football. At times we played through them nicely, but they were able to defend much better than when we were here a couple of weeks ago.
It’s half-time now and I’m looking forward to the game back at home.
On Sky Sports, Jamie Redknapp is highlighting the point that Stephen Cottrell made in the 95th minute – that Liverpool were almost punished twice for Bergvall’s foul on Kostas Tsimikas, because he wasn’t on the pitch when Solanke made the channel run that led to the goal.
The more you say it, the harder it is to understand why he wasn’t sent off. I still think the simplest solution is to allow VAR to be used for second yellow cards.
Here’s David Hytner’s report from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
“I’m already grieving for the interview podcast we’ll never get,” begins Kári Tulinius, “where a random celebrity watches Speed 2: Cruise Control with you, answering questions and helping you in your heroic struggle to maintain a grip on reality while watching the same terrible film every night, and obsessively trying to figure out the great mystery of the movie: who’s steering the boat.”
I had Jermain Defoe lined up as well.
As I type, Antonin Kinsky is embracing a lady in the crowd, presumably a family member or partner rather than a random Spurs fan who has had a season ticket since the days of Micky Hazard.
She is in tears; his back is to the camera but his body language suggests it might be raining on his face as well. That’s a lovely snapshot of the oft-forgotten human side of football.
Edit: it was his sister, and his parents were in the crowd as well.
Updated
The controversy over the goal is one of the reasons this is quite a hard game to assess. It felt like Liverpool were the better team, yet Spurs had more clear chances and also had a goal disallowed for a Spandex-tight offside.
Liverpool will still be favourites to reach the final when the semi-final resumes in 2029, but Spurs have given themselves a chance – and Antonin Kinsky has kept a clean sheet on his debut.
There were one or two frisky moments but for a 21-year-old keeper making his debut, for a team that has been haemorrhaging goals, having only arrived in the country a few days ago, he was ever so impressive. His personality and ability on the ball really stood out. (He made some saves as well.)
Updated
Virgil van Dijk is straight over to the referee, asking why Bergvall wasn’t sent off. He probably has a point, and I still don’t really understand why VAR can’t used both to suggest or rescind second yellow cards.
Updated
Full time: Tottenham 1-0 Liverpool
Peep peep!
90+8 min: VAR check for a Liverpool penalty! Now Jones goes down after a scramble just insied the area. Kulusevski dangled a lazy leg and may well have caught Jones, but the VAR team decide it’s Referee’s Call.
90+7 min One last corner for Liverpool, to be taken by Alexander-Arnold.
90+6 min Diaz goes over in the area after a little shove from behind by Porro. It was risky – he put two hands on Diaz I think – but not forceful enough for a penalty.
90+5 min “The bigger issue is that the injured player – who would have covered Solanke’s run – wasnt allowed back on the pitch,” says Stephen Cottrell. “So one team was down to 10 men.”
Ah, I missed that in all the excitement. I don’t have too much sympathy more generally. In this instance yes, because Tsimikas was fouled, but not with those who criticise the 30-second rule. It only came in because 99.94 per cent of players fake injury when it suits.
Updated
90+4 min: Excellent save by Kinsky! Diaz really hammers a cross just behind Nunez, who does quite brilliantly to manufacture a volley towards goal from about eight yards. Kinsky showed equally impressive reactions to tip it round the post. I’m not certain Nunez’s shot was on target but Kinsky couldn’t take a chance. It was a preposterously good effort from Nunez too.
Updated
90+2 min A typically wicked cross from Alexander-Arnold is headed behind really well by Porro, under all sorts of pressure from Diaz. A goalkick is given, which is a mistake, though it might have been a foul by Diaz on Porro.
90 min There will be seven minutes of added time. Also, if anyone wants 365 WMV files of Speed 2: Cruise Control, slide into my DMs.
Updated
88 min “While watching the match in the Netherlands, Sander Westerveld, erstwhile of Liverpool, Portsmouth and Everton in the PL, made Arteta’s case: hard to control and they should shoot more and watch it fly in zigzag to trouble the keepers,” writes Onno Giller. “Reminds me of the Jabulani discussions during the 2010 World Cup. I am an Arsenal fan and although Arteta may have a point that it is different to the Premier League, it is just an excuse for a bad performance.”
Though I get the point about sour grapes, I was surprised by the extent to which Arteta’s comments were dismissed. All footballs have different properties, as anyone whose schooldays regularly involved a Mitre Mouldmaster being slammed into their inner thigh on a sub-zero day will confirm.
87 min The Liverpool bench kicked off with the fourth official after the goal, and they probably have a point. But VAR can’t get involved for two yellow cards (which is a load of nonsense by the way) so Bergvall stayed on the field.
Some will say Bergvall’s actual yellow card was harsh because hd didn’t touch Diaz.
What isn’t in doubt is that Bergvall is a fine young midfield player with an admirable mentality. He’s had a really good game tonight.
Porro drove a long pass down the right that was retrieved by the tireless Solanke, under pressure from Konate. He turned and laid the ball off lovingly to the onrushing Bergvall, who swept a low shot past Alisson from 15 yards. That’s a lovely goal – the assist, the run and the calmness of the finish.
GOAL! Tottenham 1-0 Liverpool (Bergvall 86)
Lucas Bergvall, who might have been sent off a moment ago, has given Spurs the lead!
Updated
85 min After a patient move from Spurs, Kulusevski tries a shot on the turn from 15 yards but slips in the process. The ball runs through to Alisson.
Liverpool break and Gravenberch’s long-range shot is held by Kinsky. During that break Tsimikas was caught by the sliding Bergvall, who has been booked. He’s a bit fortunate to not see yellow and then red.
Updated
80 min: Liverpool substitution Ibrahima Konate comes on for Alexis Mac Allister, which means Endo can move into midfield.
NO GOAL! Tottenham 0-0 Liverpool
Big Ange’s love affair with VAR continues. In the quarter-final the goal would have counted; tonight, alas, VAR is in use and Solanke was fractionally offside.
Stuart Attwell announces the decision to the crowd. He’s not a natural, it’s fair to say, but then few of us would be.
Updated
This is very tight for offside. I think Alexander-Arnold is just playing him on. Solanke ran behind Endo, onto a long pass from inside the Spurs half, and finished coolly past the outrushing Alisson.
Updated
GOAL! Tottenham 1-0 Liverpool (Solanke 76)
It’ll be checked by VAR, but as things stand Dominic Solanke has scored against his old club for the third time in a month!
Updated
74 min Football stopped being 11-a-side a long time ago, and the last 15 minutes are a reflection of the quaity of the two benches. Luis Diaz, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Darwin Nunez have really increased Liverpool’s intensity.
The Spurs sub, Werner, tries to do the same with a scurrying run from the halfway line into the area. That part was good, the ill-conceived shot into the side netting from a tight angle less so.
73 min: Spurs substitution Timo Werner replaces Son, who struggled to make a meaningful impact on the game.
71 min: Off the line by Dragusin! Liverpool are turning up the heat now. Tsimikas’s cross misses everyone in the middle and bounces towards Alexander-Arnold on the right edge of the area. The angle is really tight but he cuts across a stunning first-time strike that whooshes past Kinsky and is kicked off the line by Dragusin.
Mac Allister’s follow up from the edge of the area goes just wide. Wherever you stand in the Trent Wars, his ball-striking technique is a thing of wonder.
Updated
69 min: Fine save by Kinsky! Salah cuts inside and angles a neat pass behind Gray towards Nunez, who whacks a first-time shot from the angle. Kinsky, already well positioned at the near post, spreads himself to block. That’s his best save so far.
Updated
68 min Bergvall is booked for a lunge at Diaz. I don’t think he made contact but the intent is often sufficient in those situations.
I was going to say it looked like a dive by Diaz but a) he might have been anticipating contact and b) after the events of September 2023, I will never again question a decision involving Luis Diaz on this ground.
66 min Jones, on the right, hammers a really dangerous first-time cross that goes through Dragusin’s legs and reaches Diaz beyond the far post. He is eventually crowded out.
64 min Gray waves a beautiful outside-of-the-foot pass to release Kulusevski on the right. His low cross is cut out by Van Dijk, immaculately positioned at the near post, but it’s worth mentioning because of that pass from Gray. He is remarkably talented for an 18-year-old, and in the long run this difficult spell will surely be good for him.
63 min “Poorly made excuses aside, I’m always impressed how precisely pro athletes know their equipment,” writes Zach Neeley. “Years ago baseball pitchers complained the balls had been changed for the playoffs. League denied any change. They had a pitcher on the broadcast one night and dumped some balls from the playoffs and some from the regular season into a sack, he reached in and separated the two types blind.”
Oh that’s tremendous. I’d imagine Jimmy Anderson could do the same with cricket balls. And the late, utterly great Neil Kulkrani with crisps. Just texture, not taste.
62 min A decent header from Nunez, roughly 12 yards out, is straight at Kinsky. Liverpool are looking dangerous again.
61 min Van Dijk plants his studs into the back of Solanke’s leg as he tries to shield the ball. I doubt it was deliberate but it was high and didn’t look great. I’m surprised the commentators didn’t dwell on it. I suspect it looked far worse in slow motion and that there wasn’t much force. Either that or I have an unconscious bias against Liverpool that remains despite decades of therapy.
Updated
60 min: Triple substitution for Liverpool This feels like a pre-planned change, with the management of minutes in mind. Luis Diaz, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Darwin Nunez come on for Diogo Jota, Conor Bradley and Cody Gakpo.
59 min A lovely effort from Salah, who spots Kinsky off his line and goes for goal from very wide on the right. Kinsky backpedals smartly, pats the ball down from under the crossbar and grabs it when it bounces up. He dealt with it well but his heart would have been a drum-and-bass track for a few seconds.
Updated
56 min: What a chance for Spurs! Bergvall, a Jack Russell with lemon hair, presses Alisson not once but twice, winning the ball superbly the second time. It runs to Porro, whose shot from the edge of the area is crucially blocked by Van Dijk. Bergvall collects the loose ball and gives back to Porro, who lifts it over Alisson and wide of the far post!
That was a glorious chance for Porro. And I’m pretty sure Van Dijk’s block saved a goal because Alisson was out of the game at that stage.
Updated
53 min A half-decent Spurs move ends with Spence’s cross zipping through to Alisson. One thing worth nothing is how quiet Son Heung-min has been. Whether that’s his form, Conor Bradley or both I don’t know, but it’s worth mentioning in the context of the ongoing Trent Wars.
Updated
51 min Salah’s inswinging cross is just too high for Gakpo, who timed his run well and was unmarked at the far post. That was better from Liverpool.
Updated
50 min “Mikel Arteta has a point about the ball,” writes Peter Oh. “It’s not easy, making the round thing fit in a rectangular hole.”
49 min Liverpool haven’t quite picked up where they left off before half-time. In fact, they haven’t done so at all. Yet.
47 min “Spurs seem to be set up slightly differently from before, something like a 3-2–2-3, with five players principally tasked with defending, and five with attacking,” writes Kári Tulinius. “Ange may have reinvented the W M formation. Everything new is old again.”
Don’t they play that way anyway in certain phases? Can you tell I have no idea what I’m talking about?
46 min Liverpool begin the second half. No further substitutions.
Bentancur 'conscious and talking'
Some very good news from Sky Sports: Rodrigo Bentancur is conscious and talking. He is on his way to hospital for further tests.
Updated
Sky Sports are reporting that Rodrigo Bentancur is still in the dressing-room with the doctors who helped stretcher him off the field. There was no other update on his condition.
Updated
Anyone fancy joining my new virtual cinema club? Our first 365 movies are brilliant.
Updated
“I can’t be the only person who’s emailed you to wittily suggest that Liverpool’s problems must be caused by the ball,” writes Alan Terlep. “Seriously, I’d love to hear Slot say post- game, ‘we didn’t control the ball. We need to do better, there’s no excuse for sloppiness.’”
Talking of which, here’s some half-time reading.
Half time: Tottenham 0-0 Liverpool
Sequels, eh. That was a half of few chances, one that never really got going after a worrying early injury to Rodrigo Bentancur. He collapsed on the turf after stooping to meet a corner, with nobody else near him, and was eventually stretchered off after a nine-minute delay.
Alisson made the best save of the half, denying Radu Dragusin from the same corner kick. Liverpool, who were sloppy for much of the first half, eventually found their usual rhythm and intensity in a manner that bodes ill for Spurs.
45+11 min Gakpo plays a quick square pass to Jota, whose snapshot from 12 yards is blocked, I think by Bergvall.
Updated
45+10 min Liverpool won’t want half-time because a goal is coming, or would be if the referee wasn’t about to blow his whistle.
45+9 min Son’s long cross from the left is headed straight at Alisson by Bergvall, 15 yards out. Even Mick Harford would have struggled to generate the necessary power on that header.
45+7 min Liverpool have come to life at the end of the first half. Mac Allister shapes a pass out to Gakpo, who cuts inside in familiar style before curling over the bar from the edge of the area. He’s looked so good this past month or so.
45+6 min “This is a dull match,” writes our bleedin’ obvious correspondent Richard Slassor. “I’m missing The Repair Shop for this?”
45+4 min Jota poked the ball through to Gakpo, who ran from inside his own half to within 25 yards of goal before crashed a low shot that moved awkwardly and was saved at the second attempt by Kinsky. It threatened to slither under him but he had plenty of time to grab the loose ball.
No second yellow card for Bissouma, which on reflection is fair enough. But he took a risk.
Updated
45+4 min Bergvall curls a good pass out to Johnson, whose shot from the edge of the area is blocked at source. Jota is then flattened by Bissouma, who might have a problem when the ball goes dead.
45+3 min Liverpool are having their best spell of the half, which admittedly isn’t saying that much. But there has been a greater snap to their passing. Gakpo charges past Porro near the byline and pokes a cross back towards Salah, 15 yards from goal. Mac Allister gets in his way for a second and Salah shoots high over the bar with his right foot. Tough chance anyway.
Updated
45+1 min “Re: the sloppiness on display this far, the misplaced passes and dodge control,” begins Neil Hattersley, “this game has had a bit of a feel of the Sunday leagues matches I used to play on fields with waterlogged flanks and a mixture of sun baked mud and sand dune in the middle. No one could predict how the ball would bounce or run… glory days.”
It’s funny you say that because a few of the players look hungover as well. (Legal disclaimer: they’re not actually hungover, or drunk, or impaired in anything other than their passing.)
45 min There will be 11 minutes of added time, the majority for the injury to Rodrigo Bentancur.
43 min Jota sparks a Liverpool break with a stylish run in the Spurs half. Salah and Gakpo are also involved before Tsimikas’s low cross towards Jones is cleared well by the sliding Bergvall. Good defending.
42 min Endo’s crossfield pass goes straight out of play. The first half in miniature.
39 min Kulusevski, on the left touchline, curves an imaginative pass around the defence towards Son. The distances are a bit too tight, even for Kulusevski, and Alisson beats Son to the ball.
38 min Liverpool’s first-half performance in the league game on this ground was arguably their best of the season. They’ve been nowhere near that standard so far, with a strange sloppiness and lack of precision in attack.
37 min Jota turns dangerously 25 yards from goal but Bissouma lunges to make an important tackle. Quite a brave one too because had he got it wrong he might have received a second yellow card.
35 min It’s been a stop-start first half, literally and figuratively. Alisson’s excellent early save from Dragusin was the closest we’ve come to a goal.
33 min: Chance for Liverpool. Tsimikas’s curling free-kick is met by Mac Allister, 10 yards out, but he has to jump backwards to meet it and can only head straight at Kinsky. Not an easy chance.
32 min Jota, such a clever, slippery player, escapes Bissouma 30 yards from goal and is bundled over. A clear yellow card.
Updated
30 min: Liverpool substitution Endo replaces Quanash, who is able to walk off the field. It might be a calf injury.
29 min Wataru Endo, usually a holding midfield player, is getting ready to replace Quansah. Liverpool do have Ibrahima Konate on the bench but he has only just returned from injury so they don’t want to risk him with effectively 75 minutes of the game remaining.
28 min Jarell Quansah is down and needs treatment. Liverpool are already short of centre-halves so they could do without losing Quansah.
27 min Spurs are ahead all on the underlying numbers, though there isn’t much in it. It’s an improvement on the league game in December, though; at this stage of that match they were lucky to be only 1-0 down.
25 min We’ll let you know as soon as there is any official word on Rodrigo Bentancur’s injury.
23 min Spurs have been the better team in the first 23 minutes (well, 14 because of the injury). But Salah gives them a warning with a first-time effort from 20 yards that goes not far wide. He cut inside from the right, lent the ball to Gakpo and then whipped a shot back across goal. Kinsky had it covered.
Updated
21 min Spurs win the ball on the halfway line and break at pace. Eventually Son beats Bradley with a stepover and drives a low cross that is slightly behind Solanke, six yards out at the near post. He tries to improvise but clips the ball off his right leg and behind for a goalkick.
18 min Kinsky waits for a long ball forward to bounce into the penalty area and is almost robbed by Jota. He seemed pretty relaxed about the whole thing so let’s assume it was the equivalent of a good leave outside off stump even though the ball just missed the stumps.
Updated
17 min “As a Liverpool fan, I’ll take 0-0 today, hoping and believing we will finish the job at home,” says Espen Bommen. “The prize for a 0-0 is just too tempting.”
Did I say I’d watch Speed 2: Cruise Control every night for a year if this ends 0-0? I’ve no idea why it would auto-correct to that from ‘Premier League Years 1995-96’.
16 min Play resumes with another corner, which is collected with ease by Alisson.
15 min: Spurs substitution After a delay of almost 10 minutes, Rodrigo Bentancur is replaced by Brennan Johnson. He’ll go to the right wing with Kulusevski moving into midfield.
12 min Bentancur has been moved carefully onto a stretcher. We haven’t seen a replay of the incident yet and it’s hard to know what the injury might be; I don’t really want to speculate at this stage.
11 min Bentancur is still down and surely won’t be able to continue. The body language of the players suggests the situation, while obviously serious, isn’t life-threatening. That’s a strange and unpleasant thing to type but we all remember the scenes in Copenhagen and also at White Hart Lane when Fabrice Muamba collapsed.
Updated
9 min As for that Alisson save, the corner from the right was missed by Bentancur and then turned back towards goal. Dragusin, maybe eight yards out, adjusted his feet to sidefoot a low, first-time shot that was saved really smartly to his right by Alisson.
Updated
8 min Bentancur stooped to try to head the corner, fell face down on the pitch and then didn’t move. He’s being treated and there is a stretcher ready. The Spurs players are chatting amongst themselves, which is a relatively good sign, though there is still plenty of concern. Brennan Johnson is preparing to come on.
Updated
7 min The corner leads to Alisson making a fine save from Dragusin, but there is real concern over Rodrigo Bentancur, who is flat out on the turf.
Updated
6 min Spurs have started well and are winning the ball in some good positions. Another iffy pass out of defence eventually leads to Van Dijk – who wasn’t at fault - conceding a corner. He turns round and shakes his head wearily. He’s not angry, just disappointed.
Updated
4 min A dodgy square pass from Tsimikas goes to Solanke in the area. Van Dijk forces him away from goal, Solanke tries to find Kulusevski and the ball is eventually lumped clear.
3 min Salah sprays an early diagonal pass over the top to Gakpo, who cuts inside with purpose but then runs into a crowd of recovering Spurs defenders.
2 min “I misread that Spurs signing rumour Simon Syphus as Sisyphus, the unlucky lad in Greek mythology condemned to push a rock up hill, only to fail over and over again,” begins Paul Griffin. “Eternally in fact. It’s a crying shame there is no parallel with Simon Sisyphus’s new club, or we could concoct a tortured gag about his predicament. Or perhaps the torture ends tonight…”
THAT WAS THE GAG. SIMON SYPHUS. SI SYPHUS. And yes I know it doesn’t work phonetically and on reflection I should have given a nod to Sissy Spacek but my brain isn’t what it was, and it wasn’t much in the first place.
1 min Peep peep! Spurs kick off from right to left as we watch.
The second leg will be played at Anfield on Thursday 6 February, 2029, largely because of the Champions League parking its tanks on the Carabao lawn. The first leg is about to begin.
“A night at the opera!” is the subject of Matthew Lever’s email. Hauling that metaphorical ship further uphill, here’s (Timo) Werner Herzog on following Spurs. Possibly.”
“Fitzcarraldo was a very fine film, didn’t need to read the subtitles to understand the plot,” says Jeremy Boyce. “Unlike Tottenham these days. I would think of Ange and Tottenham more like Klaus’s daughter, Natasha, in Paris, Texas. Some much-needed excellent aesthetics and increased pulse rate following a long period of desertic drought.”
“Fitzcarraldo was one of the coolest movies I ever saw on the big screen,” writes Joe Pearson, “especially when you knew beforehand all the craziness that went into getting it filmed. The only other visual spectacle of that time that I can compare it to is Kurosawa’s Kagemusha. Brilliant!”
Aren’t writers supposed to make the readers feel uneducated rather than the other way round?
A reminder of the teams
Tottenham Hotspur (4-3-3) Kinsky; Pedro Porro, Dragusin, Gray, Spence; Bergvall, Bentancur, Bissouma; Kulusevski, Solanke, Son.
Substitutes: Austin, Dorrington, Johnson, Lankshear, Moore, Olusesi, Reguilon, Werner, Yang Min-hyuk.
Liverpool (4-3-3) Alisson; Bradley, Quansah, Van Dijk, Tsimikas; Jones, Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Salah, Jota, Gakpo.
Substitutes: Kelleher, Endo, Konate, Diaz, Nunez, Chiesa, Elliott, Robertson, Alexander-Arnold.
Referee Stuart Attwell.
“Everybody knows that Father Ted: Speed 3 was the real sequel (and one that you could actually watch for a year),” writes Justin Kavanagh. “ When Father Dougal takes over Pat Mustard’s milk round, and finds out that the booby-trapped vehicle cannot drop below 4 miles an hour, the drama is unbearable. A bit like Ange taking over from Ryan Mason, careering the team toward doom, with no alternative means of stopping it. I don’t think Spurs have a prayer tonight.”
They should have started the game very early in the morning and put Pat Mustard at centre-back.
“I’m not usually one to cut any of the Big Six some slack (even with PSR most of them have got more brass na wit, as they might say in Yorkshire),” begins Richard Hirst, “but you look at the strength of the two benches and you feel just a little bit of sympathy for Ange.”
Yeah but look at the strength of Spurs’ treatment room.
“Spurs’ new young goalie will have a busy debut against my Reds anyway so we shouldn’t load another burden on him by giving him a funny but wrong name,” writes Ernst Draxl. “It’s Antonin Kinsky.”
Thanks, those have been changed now. They were typos (it’s been a while) rather than attempts at hilarity.
Updated
Read Arne Slot on contracts and quadruples
All the players are fit at the moment but if we drop points when we have injuries, people say it is because you have injuries. If Mo [Salah] misses a penalty against [Real] Madrid he is distracted by his contract situation. If Trent [Alexander-Arnold] has not his best performance [against Manchester United] he is distracted by the contract situation.
If they play really well nobody tells me: ‘That’s because they have a contract situation.’ We always try to find arguments but nine out of 10 times the best argument is the quality of the team you face or the gameplan the other team has.
“I would rate Basic Instinct 2 as the worst sequel (and totally unnecessary too) but I agree Speed 2 was terrible,” writes Krishnamoorthy V. “Even Dafoe could not save it.”
Do you realise how hard I’m fighting to resist the lure of the J key right now.
If you do this quiz your life will be better (for about 120 seconds)
I got 13/15. Whether this makes me special or a disgrace to the Guardian, well that’s not for me to say.
Ange Postecoglou on Son Heung-min
We are a team that is very disrupted, that is not playing with a fluency that it can play with. We’re asking players to play in positions that they are totally unfamiliar with. But when we’re at our best, I still think you’ll see Sonny’s return – in terms of his ability to score goals and be really effective for us. He’s going through a tough trot but we’re going through a tough trot. That goes hand in hand.
From the archive: classic Spurs v Liverpool matches
So, then, the Titanic. That went down a month after Tom Mason and Ernie Newman had given Tottenham a 2-1 victory at Anfield on 16 March 1912. Who’d have thought it would take the Lilywhites another 73 years to record their next win at Liverpool? And that – this is eerie – they would record it on exactly the same day of the year?
Garth Crooks was the hero for Peter Shreeves’s side, who had designs on the championship. Reigning champions Liverpool had been playing erratically all season, with Kevin MacDonald – a good player, just not a great one – no replacement for the departed Graeme Souness.
This result – Crooks scoring the winner with 19 minutes to go, following up a Micky Hazard shot which had been spilled by Bruce Grobbelaar – was celebrated wildly by Spurs. Partly because of the lifting of the historical millstone the players were allowed to keep their shirts as souvenirs, at a time when such practices were rarer, but mainly because it looked like being the symbolic catalyst to win the title.
“The name of the new Spurs goalie is strongly reminiscent of the late German acting firebrand Klaus Kinski,” notes Sandr- Peter Oh. “Come to think of it, managing Spurs must feel a little like trying to drag a ship over a mountain while listening to opera.”
In other news, Spurs have reportedly agreed a deal for MK Dons’ teenage defender Simon Syphus.
Team news: Kinsky makes Spurs debut
As expected, both managers have picked very strong sides. Spurs new goalkeeper, 21-year-old Antonin Kinsky, makes his debut. Son Heung-min, Rodrigo Bentancur and Yves Bissouma return to the side in place of Pape Mate Sarr, who is suspended, Timo Werner and Brennan Johnson.
Liverpool also make four changes from the weekend, three of them in defence. Conor Bradley, Jarell Quansah and Kostas Tsimikas come in for Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ibrahima Konate and Andy Robertson. The other change is in attack: Diogo Jota in, Luis Diaz out.
Tottenham Hotspur (4-3-3) Kinsky; Pedro Porro, Dragusin, Gray, Spence; Bergvall, Bentancur, Bissouma; Kulusevski, Solanke, Son.
Substitutes: Austin, Dorrington, Johnson, Lankshear, Moore, Olusesi, Reguilon, Werner, Yang Min-hyuk.
Liverpool (4-3-3) Alisson; Bradley, Quansah, Van Dijk, Tsimikas; Jones, Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Salah, Jota, Gakpo.
Substitutes: Kelleher, Endo, Konate, Diaz, Nunez, Chiesa, Elliott, Robertson, Alexander-Arnold.
Referee Stuart Attwell.
Updated
Preamble
Sequels, bloody hell. For every Godfather Part II there are usually a dozen Speed 2: Cruise Controls. It’s the same in football, where it’s rare for two teams to follow one thriller with another. But there are occasional exceptions, as anyone who followed Liverpool or Newcastle in the mid-1990s will tell you, and tonight has the potential to be another.
It’s barely a fortnight since Liverpool undressed Spurs 6-3 in the Premier League, and while we shouldn’t necessarily expect a repeat scoreline, the nature of both teams is such that it’s hard to envisage a clunker.
The stakes are high for both clubs and especially for the Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou. He usually wins trophies in his second season but, if tonight goes wrong, his only souvenir from the 2024-25 season might be a P45.
Let’s hope not. Big Ange and Spurs make English football a far more interesting, fun place. We can’t, or at least we shouldn’t, discuss their desperate recent form without acknowledging a pretty brutal injury list. Tonight they are also without the suspended pair of Pape Sarr and James Maddison, but the new signing Anthony Kinsky could start in goal.
Liverpool had an unexpectedly difficult afternoon against Manchester United on Sunday, a reminder that football will always be a funny old game, but they’ve only failed to win twice away from home all season and Arne Slot has named a very strong squad for tonight’s first leg.
In short, if this game ends goalless, I’ll watch Speed 2: Cruise Control every night for a year.
Kick off 8pm.
Updated
