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Tottenham Hotspur Match Reports
Tottenham 1-0 Liverpool: Late Bergvall goal gives Spurs win in League Cup first leg
Spurs take a slim lead to Anfield for the second leg.
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Just two weeks ago, Liverpool came to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and came away with a dominant 6-3 win over Tottenham. Today, in the first leg of the League Cup semifinal match between the two teams, Tottenham turned the table. Lucas Bergvall, who moments before had luckily escaped what might have been a second yellow card, turned in a late goal after being set up by Dominic Solanke and Tottenham defeated the league leaders 1-0, taking a slim lead to Anfield in a couple months. It was Bergvall’s first goal in a Tottenham Hotspur shirt, and it was a crucial one, snapping Liverpool’s 24 match unbeaten streak.
Spurs put in a much more assured performance than they did the last time these two teams met, and benefited from the debut of new keeper signing Antonin Kinsky, who had an excellent match, both playing out of the back and also with a couple of outstanding saves. Dominic Solanke also had a ball in the back of the net that was called back for a toenail offside.
Tottenham put out the strongest lineup they could for this one, which unfortunately still isn’t their strongest possible. However, there were a few surprises — new keeper signing Kinsky was thrown straight into the squad just days after signing from Slavia Prague. Yves Bissouma, Lucas Bergvall, and Rodrigo Bentancur anchored the midfield with Pape Sarr and James Maddison both suspended due to yellow card accumulation. And to everyone’s surprise, Yang Min-hyeok was named to the bench — his first appearance in the squad since joining from the K-League, as was Mikey Moore, who makes his long-awaited return after recovering from a virus.
Liverpool also put out a strong squad, only really rotating their back line. The likes of Mohamed Salah, Cody Gakpo and Diego Jota all started for the Reds, who have Accrington Stanley in the FA Cup coming up and are more easily able to rotate for that match than this one. Liverpool also know that a good result in the first leg sets them up for an easier time in the second leg, at Anfield.
Here are my match reactions from an exciting and cathartic Tottenham win.
Match reactions:
A really scary early moment when Bentancur went down injured. The stretcher even came out. I didn’t see what happened, it looked like maybe he attempted a diving header and fell awkwardly? But he was at least sitting up before leaving the field. I swear, this team is cursed w/r/t injuries. Do we need to sacrifice Chirpy at the center circle to break this?
I was very upset with the home fans singing the “I don’t care about Levy” song while Bentancur is down on the pitch on a stretcher. Read the fucking room.
Kinsky is just such a different keeper to Forster. He plays high, spending much of his time outside the box when Spurs are in possession. He passes to his defenders’ feet. He plays skip passes! He passes accurately from deep! The positioning allows Spurs to start their attacks higher up the pitch and be quicker. Small sample size, but thus far — I love him. He seems perfect for Ange, maybe more so than even Googly Elmo.
Yves Bissouma is always good for picking up a stupid first half yellow card. At least he’s consistent about it.
Spurs had an injury, a new keeper, several players out, and couldn’t complete a pass and were still better than Liverpool in that first half.
Djed Spence was quite possibly Spurs’ best player in this match. Dynamic with the ball, making runs, overlapping Son when necessary. Outstanding match.
Kulusevski and Solanke have both played a TON of minutes lately, and it’s finally starting to show. This was the first match where I’ve really noticed a drop-off from both of them in intensity and technical ability. I think they’re just knackered. Hopefully they can get a breather against Tamworth.
I’m not really a blame the ref guy but this match official let Liverpool get away with SO MANY fouls — shoulder charges, pull-backs, cheeky kicks. It was infuriating.
Lucas Bergvall has improved as a player this season but I’m not sure he’s at the level yet where he can be a consistent plus-add for Spurs in the midfield. The game has clearly slowed down for him and you can see the glimpses of some real quality, but he’s a little frustrating with his passing and decision-making right now. He really should’ve been sent off for two late tackles on Diaz and was very lucky.
That second half miss by Porro was Liverpool’s one gift to Spurs all match and they screwed it up. That goal was gaping, and I can’t fathom how Porro put that shot wide.
Must be nice to be able to bring Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez, and Trent Alexander-Arnold off the bench in a cup semifinal. Spurs could never.
Just when I was about ready to yell at Radu Dragusin, he goes and makes an incredible goal-line clearance. Wow.
That was such a nice goal from Solanke and it’s such a bummer that VAR called it off for a toenail offside. At least the match official explained it to the crowd over the tannoy, that’s at least something.
Hey, remember that stuff I wrote about Lucas Bergvall above? Ignore all that, he rules. That was an incredible finish, and an excellent assist from Solanke to set it up.
Liverpool fans online are already salty about this match, saying they were robbed after benefiting from soft officiating all match. I love it that this seems to happen every time we beat them.
A 1-0 lead heading into Anfield isn’t especially a secure one, but one hopes that by the time these two teams meet again Spurs will have a few first team players back from injury. It sets up for a potentially explosive second leg, and that’s exciting.