Spurs were victorious in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final tie against Liverpool on Wednesday evening and have the advantage ahead of their visit to Anfield for the second leg.
The home side started the better of the two sides and just five minutes into the match, Alisson was forced into a very good low save after a good attempt from Spurs centre-back Radu Dragusin. Following the Brazilian's save, Rodrigo Bentancur went down inside the Liverpool area after going for a header and there was immediate concern. After almost 10 minutes of being attended to, the Uruguayan was stretchered off and replaced by Brennan Johnson.
After 30 minutes it was Liverpool who now had an injury to deal with. Jarell Quansah went down with an injury and was replaced by Wataru Endo who is a defensive midfielder but he slotted in as the left-sided centre-back alongside Virgil van Dijk. In what up to this point was a pretty nervy end-to-end game, the early changes for both sides would have been less than ideal for both Ange Postecoglou and Arne Slot.
The visitors nearly found the opening goal just before half-time when Konstantinos Tsimikas entered the box and played a dangerous low cross into the box which was cleared away well by Lucas Bergvall. This was probably Liverpool's best chance of the first half up to this point and goalscoring attempts were in short supply for both teams which was a bit of a surprise as many people were anticipating a free-flowing and attacking game of football.
The first half ended 0-0 but the Premier League leaders ended the half in full control however they still could not find the back of the net despite their efforts.
In the 56th minute, Alisson almost cost his side a goal. The Brazilian was hunted down by Bergvall playing the ball out and the midfielder won the ball back leading to a Spurs shot which was excellently blocked by van Dijk and then Pedro Porro chipped the ball wide in a chance that he probably should've put away. The Liverpool manager, Slot, made several big changes on the hour mark, freshening up his attack by introducing Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez, with the latter forcing a save out of the new Spurs goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky shortly after coming on.
Liverpool would've found the back of the net in the 71st minute if it wasn't for an excellent goal-line clearance by Dragusin. Alexander-Arnold connected perfectly with a strike which would have buried into the back of the net but the Romanian was positioned perfectly and cleared it off the line to keep the game 0-0.
Spurs had the ball in the back of the net just minutes after when Pedro Porro played a perfect pass through to Dominic Solanke who slotted it into the goal. After several minutes of review, VAR deemed the goal offside and the match was restarted at 0-0 to the relief of the Liverpool defence.
Despite being sucker-punched by VAR ruling out Solanke's goal, Spurs kept going and in the 86th minute put themselves in front thanks to a goal from Bergvall which was met with outrage from the Liverpool dugout as they felt that he shouldn't have been on the pitch.
In stoppage time, Spurs' new goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky made a phenomenal save to deny Nunez and retain his side's lead. This save from the new man proved to be key as this was the last significant action of the game and secured Spurs a 1-0 lead heading into the second leg at Anfield.
Match Highlights
Spurs Player Ratings
GK: Antonin Kinsky - 8.5/10
The debutant had a very good first showing for Spurs and made some very good and important saves. He had some nervy moments in possession and when claiming crosses, but considering this was his debut against arguably the best team in the world, he did very well.
RB: Pedro Porro - 6.5/10
One of his quieter performances in a Spurs shirt. Porro didn't have as much attacking output as he normally does but would have had an assist to his name if it wasn't for VAR.
CB: Radu Dragusin - 8/10
Made an excellent goal-line clearance to deny Alexander-Arnold a goal and was very good throughout the match.
CB: Archie Gray - 7/10
A very solid performance from the youngster despite once again being played out of position. Gray dealt with the Liverpool attack well and was valuable for his side bringing the ball out of defence also.
LB: Djed Spence - 7/10
Linked up with Heung-Min Son well and was a threat going forward and carried the ball very well at times.
CM: Yves Bissouma - 7.5/10
A commanding midfield performance. Bissouma protected Dragusin and Gray well and made many excellent tackles to break up Liverpool's attacks.
CM: Rodrigo Bentancur - N/A
Was unfortunately stretchered off after just 15 minutes after going down inside the Liverpool penalty area. Didn't have an impact on the game in the time he spent on the pitch.
CM: Lucas Bergvall - 8/10
Played the box-to-box position very well and was very active both offensively and defensively. The Swede scored the winning goal for Spurs with a calm finish into the bottom corner.
RW: Dejan Kulusevski - 7.5/10
Caused problems for Tsimikas all evening. His performance was very impressive considering he was shifted into midfield following Bentancur's substitution.
ST: Dominic Solanke - 7/10
Solanke thought he scored but VAR ruled it out but he made up for it with an assist for Bergvall's winning goal.
LW: Heung-Min Son - 6/10
Didn't see as much of the ball as he usually does. Son was substituted after 72 minutes after failing to make an impact.
SUB: Brennan Johnson - 6.5/10
Worked hard and didn't stop battling against Tsimikas. His end product wasn't the best of quality but he was involved in the game a fair bit.
SUB: Timo Werner - N/A
Didn't have much of an impact after entering the pitch.
Liverpool Player Ratings
GK: Alisson - 5.5/10
Had some really nervy moments on the ball and almost cost Liverpool a goal by giving the ball away playing out of defence.
RB: Conor Bradley - 6.5/10
Bradley was energetic and determined to go forward when he had the ball and battled well against Son. The Northern Ireland international was replaced after an hour by Alexander-Arnold.
CB: Jarell Quansah - N/A
Substituted due to an injury after just 30 minutes. He didn't do much in the time he had on the pitch.
CB: Virgil van Dijk - 8/10
Once again held the Liverpool back-line together. Van Dijk had to do a lot of covering for his defensive partners who were out of position and he did not put a foot wrong.
LB: Konstantinos Tsimikas - 5/10
Really struggled at times against Kulusevski and was clearly a target for Spurs.
CM: Ryan Gravenberch - 7.5/10
Another calm and classy performance from the Dutchman. He commanded the midfield well even in moments of chaos from his defence.
CM: Alexis Mac Allister - 7/10
Mac Allister worked hard and ran his socks off for Liverpool. If it wasn't for him, their midfield probably would have been a lot more overrun than they already were.
CM: Curtis Jones - 6/10
The Englishman had a lot of the ball but didn't really do much with it and was anonymous at times.
RW: Mohamed Salah - 6/10
One of his quietest performances of the season. Liverpool played the ball down the left-hand side more than they normally do and this isolated Salah at times.
ST: Diogo Jota - 6/10
Didn't really have that much involvement in the match and was substituted after an hour.
LW: Cody Gakpo - 7/10
Liverpool's most dangerous attacking outlet in the first half but was somewhat surprisingly taken off after an hour despite putting in a good performance.
SUB: Wataru Endo - 7/10
Slotted into the left centre-back role nicely considering he was playing well out of position. Endo was calm and composed on the ball but also physically held his own in the position.
SUB: Trent Alexander-Arnold - 6/10
Went close to scoring but Dragusin cleared it off the line. Other than that he did not have much of an impact on the match.
SUB: Luis Diaz - 6.5/10
Had a few good chances but failed to find the back of the net.
SUB: Ibrahima Konate - N/A
Did not have much of an impact on the match after entering the pitch.
Man of the Match
Antonin Kinsky
Despite being just days into his time at Spurs, Antonin Kinsky may have just become a fan-favourite. The Czech, who signed from Slavia Prague earlier this week put in a heroic goalkeeping performance in his debut and arguably won the game for his new side.
Kinsky had some nervy moments on the ball at times but his shot-stopping was immense and kept his side in the game while they were under some spells of pressure. After a performance like this, Kinsky will surely become Spurs' new number-one goalkeeper at least while Guglielmo Vicario recovers from his injury.