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It’s cramped in the tunnel, and Ange Postecoglou looks determined. The 3g pitch beckons.

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Bob Andrews, the Tamworth chairman, has spoken to the BBC: “It is the biggest day in the club’s history. We thought Wembley was good in the FA Vase but this tops it. To have a Premier League club of this stature at Tamworth is fantastic. It is just nice to get all the crowd here. I wish we could get more in but we are full to capacity.

“The money from this game is going to help us develop the ground itself. We need better dressing rooms, we need a stand down the bottom end - we need various things. It’s tidy but it needs upgrading.”

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So, how were the changing rooms? Timo Werner seems chipper enough as he states that in Germany, the smaller team always hosts the cup tie.

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Tamworth team is here

Tamworth: Singh, Crompton, Cullinane-Liburd, Hollis, Cockerill-Mollett, Tonks, Milnes, McLinchey, Morrison, Enoru, Creaney. Subs: Phillips, Curley, Digie, Fletcher, Finn, Wreh, Williams, Tshikuna, Sundire.

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Reguilon, Sarr, Maddison, Johnson, Werner, Moore in, Djed Spence, Son, Solanke, Kulusevski and Bergval out, with Bentancur on the sidelines, too. Kinsky continues in goal.

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Tottenham team is here - six changes.

Tottenham: Kinsky, Porro, Dragusin, Gray, Reguilon, Sarr, Bissouma, Maddison, Johnson, Werner, Moore. Subs: Austin, Spence, Dorrington, Bergvall, Olusesi, Kulusevski, Son, Solanke, Lankshear.

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Here’s Ben Fisher’s excellent story on Tamworth FC.

Nickname: The lambs.

To the slaughter? Let’s see.

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Preamble

Tamworth, a busy, proud market town in the west Midlands, full of history, its best known son the arch-drude Julian Cope, hosts the mighty Tottenham. They’re 16th in the National League so play a decent standard of football, so can Ange’s boys have it all their own way. After that tough night in beating Liverpool in the FA Cup, a thin squad will be rotated. This is the tie of the round for those who like to see the minnows host the elite.

Kick-off is at 12.30pm UK time. Join me.

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Updated at 13.15 CET

Ange Postecoglou had to remove toads from a swampy pitch before one of the most pivotal games of his career, so Sunday’s FA Cup tie on non-league Tamworth’s 3G surface holds no fears for him.

The Tottenham manager has plenty of experience of artificial pitches, including from his time in Scotland with Celtic, and he said his players would train on one at the club’s Enfield HQ on Saturday. But Postecoglou’s mind went back to his first job as a manager at South Melbourne and a make-or-break fixture in unusual conditions. It was an Oceania qualification tie for the inaugural 2000 Club World Cup and Postecoglou has vivid memories not only about what was at stake but also the surface at the stadium in Fiji.

“Warming up, there were toads we had to remove which kept jumping on the pitch,” Postecoglou said. “Toads like grass and they love ponds and there was a bit of water on there, as well, so it was a combination of things that attracted them. It was a tropical sort of environment.

“At the time, you’re kind of going: ‘Really?’ But then you realise what was at stake – a fair bit of money and the opportunity to play against some of the best teams in the world. Our president at the time, George Vasilopoulos, who is still around, had these worry beads – they got a working out that day, let me tell you. He kept thinking about our bank balance and seeing frogs and toads on the field. It’s an experience.”

South Melbourne won and progressed to Brazil, where they played Manchester United, Vasco da Gama and Necaxa; each of the ties was staged at the Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro – an extraordinary experience for Postecoglou’s semi-professional team. They lost all three games but only by two-goal margins. United had notoriously withdrawn from the FA Cup to compete.

“It was United’s great treble-winning team and we ended up losing 2-0,” Postecoglou said. “But we gave a decent account of ourselves. Some of my players, who were semi-pro but good footballers, probably played the best game of their lives that day. What we’re going to face at Tamworth is players hoping to do the same. That’s why you’ve always got to be respectful.”

Postecoglou said that qualifying for the Club World Cup effectively destroyed South Melbourne’s domestic season because his players became distracted and did not want to risk getting injured. Tamworth, 16th in the National League, have won just two of seven matches in all competitions since the FA Cup draw was made. Postecoglou is ready for them to punch above their weight. He has been the underdog so often during his career and is well acquainted with the script.

“I think people are tired of my stories … I feel like grandpa at the family gathering; ‘here he goes again with the old war stories’,” Postecoglou said. “But you know I have been in that position a lot. Even with the Australia national team, we played at the [2014] World Cup against the Netherlands after they had thumped Spain [5-1] in the first game. Pretty daunting. We ended up losing 3-2. I thought we were unlucky on the day.

“Football, more than any other sport, is a real leveller. And that’s because it’s still a very difficult game to score goals in and really show the difference in levels. That is what I love about the game. It allows people at all levels to dream and it’s why the FA Cup is such a great competition. I’m on the other side of the fence this time. I want to make sure that we show our capabilities.”

Rodrigo Bentancur has been given the all-clear to return to playing after he serves a 12-day concussion protocol. The Tottenham midfielder sparked concern when he collapsed to the turf in his club’s 1-0 Carabao Cup semi-final first-leg win over Liverpool on Wednesday night.

Bentancur was taken away on a stretcher after eight minutes of treatment and was assessed in hospital. The neurological tests have revealed nothing more serious than concussion.

The Uruguay international, who sustained a concussion in Spurs’ opening game of the season at Leicester after a clash of heads, did not appear to collide with another Liverpool player as he tried to reach the ball at a seventh- minute corner. The feeling at Spurs is that he got his arm caught in an unusual position, had nothing to cushion his fall and banged his head down hard against the ground, knocking himself out.

Because it is Bentancur’s second concussion of the season, the rules demand that he does not play games for at least 12 days. His projected return date is against Hoffenheim in the Europa League on 23 January, meaning he will miss the next three matches – against Tamworth in the FA Cup and Arsenal and Everton in the Premier League. After the Leicester game at the start of the season, Bentancur sat out the following fixture against Everton.

“It looks like a concussion but nothing more than that,” the Spurs manager, Ange Postecoglou, said. “He was in the hospital, obviously, and they did all of the tests in terms of checking, making sure everything is OK. And all good. He is back home. He is fine. He is feeling good. We’ll obviously follow the protocols now. I think it is a couple of weeks where you have to make sure everything is OK.

“It was distressing and you saw, especially Pedro [Porro] who was the first one there, he kind of knew it was a distressing situation. I thought the lads handled it well and the medical team handled it well. As I said, thankfully it’s all good.”

SPURS GET HOTTER

Tottenham get a lot of stick. Even the most hardened Spurs fan, mate, would agree they deserve a fair bit of it. But if you strip back the jokes, the commemorative DVD and T-shirt to celebrate a 1-0 league win over Chelsea in November 2006 (“If you missed it, here is your chance to see what all the fuss is about!”), the websites dedicated to documenting how long it’s been since they last won a trophy, the concept of a cheese room, Richarlison’s back tattoos and getting mugged off by Dulux, there is a very likable club there. The big issue for Spurs is that they just can’t seem to get over the line when it matters. Of course, it’s a fine margin between victory and defeat, between a rooster and a cockerel; just ask Hugo Lloris, France’s World Cup-winning captain.

Even Spurs’ best moment of recent years, that preposterous away-goals win over Ajax in 2019 – the sort of victory from the jaws of defeat that Tottenham themselves are used to being on the wrong end of – was followed up by one of the Spursiest starts to a Big Cup final you could dream of, a dubious penalty conceded 23 seconds into the match to set Liverpool on their way to yet another European triumph. Therefore, can Football Daily even dare to call the Carling Cup semi-final first leg 1-0 victory over Liverpool some sort of vengeance for that game? Probably not, especially given their volatility over two legs and the fact they are battling it out for Carabao, not champagne. But there was a quiet satisfaction to Wednesday’s win against the Premier League leaders. So let’s give Tottenham and Ange Postecoglou – a previously gracious and philosophical manager, reduced to speculating in recent days if one of the world’s greatest players would be able to hit a barn door in a Spurs shirt – some flowers.

The Londoners were excellent against Liverpool. Archie Gray, 18 years young and out of position at centre-back, was magnificent in defence. Alongside him, Radu Dragusin temporarily morphed into Gary Mabbutt, complete with all 10 of his toes. Three days after signing, Antonin Kinsky was thrust into the starting XI and looked like he had been between the sticks for a decade, the only thing overshadowing his performance or tearful post-match embrace with his sister the footage of a middle-aged man in the foreground of said embrace, furiously searching through his phone trying to find the camera app. After a midfield performance full of industry and class, Lucas Bergvall scored an incisive winner, even if his goal came approximately a minute after he should have been handed his second yellow of the game for a blatant foul on the visitors’ Kostas Tsimikas.

“There’s a linesman there, a fourth official there, there’s VAR, a referee and he doesn’t get [one],” sobbed Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk. “I’m not saying this is the reason why we lost tonight but it was a big moment in the game.” But don’t let that crucial, blatant, game-deciding incident detract from the narrative of this glorious triumph. Sure, Liverpool will probably win the second leg 3-0 at Anfield and go on to prolong Newcastle’s own trophy drought in the final, the Reds’ latest domestic silverware barely a footnote in their own glittering history, but Tottenham will always have this Milk Cup semi-final first leg win. They will always have Wednesday 8 January 2025. And if you missed it, you can always grab the commemorative T-shirt and DVD, presumably out next week, to see what all the fuss is about.

LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE

Join Taha Hashim from 7pm GMT for hot FA Cup third-round clockwatch action on … what’s this … a Thursday night?

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“New players have come in from other clubs and they say that the people that have her role don’t do it in the same way. My mum will go out with them and make sure they get the best apartment or show them where the shops are. She will also make sure their partners are looked after. I sometimes even see her walking around babysitting some of the players’ kids if they don’t have anywhere to take them for the day. She goes far beyond her role but she enjoys it too” – Charlton’s Miles Leaburn, son of Addicks legend Carl, pays tribute to mum Tracey, who’s also the head of player care down at The Valley.

With respect to football miracle comparisons (Tuesday’s Football Daily), please forgive my pedantry when I point out that Leicester ‘did a Nottingham Forest’ (remember Brian Clough?). So if Forest ‘do a Leicester’ they will actually be ‘doing a Forest’. And ‘doing a Forest’ is better than ‘doing a Leicester’ because ‘doing a Forest’ involves going on to subsequent back-to-back Big Cup successes, whereas ‘doing a Leicester’ involves subsequent relegation” – Mark Brookes (and others).

If you’d like to hear what ‘a straight-to-ITVX buddy-cop drama (with Eddie Howe as the increasingly exasperated police chief)’ would sound like (yesterday’s Football Daily), I’d direct you to back episodes of Bob Mortimer and Andy Dawson’s excellent Athletico Mince podcast, which features script read-throughs of Geordie Heat, a police procedural with DCI Howe and his crack squad of Tyneside heroes solving the big problems faced by their community (mostly Mr Sting from the massive house with the massive gates). In Eddie’s words, I wish you all the best in your future [effin’] endeavours” – Jon Gerrard.

The mention in yesterday’s Football Daily of picking a forward to convert a chance to save your life reminds me of the great Aussie rules commentator Dennis Cometti. When a co-commentator spoke in exactly those terms about an in-form player, Dennis said, if he had to pick someone to kick a goal to save his life, he’d pick his mum. After a pause he added: ‘She’s not much of a kicker, but at least she’d care’” – Chris Mackenzie Davey.

I see Harry Maguire has discovered an extra yard of speed – even if it’s 85mph in a tunnel beneath Manchester airport. Perhaps he believes United’s season is about to take off” – Mark McFadden.

It’s good to see that in just one day, Tottenham announced Paris Baguette, a South Korean bakery chain, ‘as its new official coffee and bakery partner’, saying they ‘will be integrating its coffee product into our matchday food and beverage menus, and will be working with the club to drive global brand awareness’. And they also announced ‘dog of the match’ at every home game throughout the season. ‘Members of Tottenham Hotspaw’, no less, with a pun so bad that even Football Daily letter writers wouldn’t stoop to it. Apparently, they played a game of football yesterday too, but I couldn’t take too much excitement in one day” – Noble Francis.

Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’ the day is … Chris Mackenzie Davey. Terms and conditions for our competitions – when we have them – can be viewed here.

Tottenham’s Rodrigo Bentancur has provided a positive update on his health after a worrying collapse against Liverpool led to his removal from the pitch on a stretcher.

Bentancur collapsed under no challenge when hunting the ball at a corner in the first half. After lengthy treatment, he was manoeuvred carefully on to a stretcher and Spurs reported at half-time of the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg that the midfielder was conscious and talking. He was taken to hospital.

“All good, guys! Thank you for the messages,” the Uruguayan wrote on his Instagram story. “Congratulations for the victory boys!!!”

Tottenham secured a 1-0 win thanks to late goal by Lucas Bergvall. Liverpool were furious the Swede had not been sent off shortly before for a tackle on Kostas Tsimikas that might have brought a second yellow card. Tsimikas was still off the pitch when Bergvall scored.

While Liverpool were left to lick their wounds, Postecoglou beamed with pride after Tottenham’s patched-up team kept the Premier League leaders to a rare shut-out.

“Yeah, very proud,” he said. “Again, we had to deal with some adversity tonight. We started the game really well I thought. Then obviously we lose Rodrigo, and in the way it happened, it was quite distressing. Again, we had to compose ourselves and deal with that and re-organise. Super proud of the players. I have been all along.”

A hard-earned, robust, counterpunching 1-0 win against the team who put six past us last month? It’s just who we are, mate. It is of course classic Angeball to kick and hassle opponents into errors, to irritate and snarl in midfield, and to find a ruthless edge just when it seemed that the first leg of this Carabao Cup semi-final was beginning to turn Liverpool’s way following the introduction of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Luis Díaz and Darwin Núñez after an hour of surprising ineptitude from the Premier League leaders.

This was a different Tottenham Hotspur from the one that collapsed against Arne Slot’s team 17 days ago. Implausibly, with Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven still missing in central defence, there was snap and aggression from start to finish. There was Yves Bissouma, who walked a tightrope after an early booking, finding it within himself to dominate Liverpool’s midfield. There was Djed Spence filling in for Destiny Udogie and keeping Mohamed Salah quiet. And there was, perhaps only fleetingly, a sense that life remains in the Ange Postecoglou project, no matter how precarious it has felt for much of a trying campaign.

Naturally Spurs put their manager through the full gamut of emotions. Postecoglou was animated by his standards here. There was even a very dramatic drop to the knees when Pedro Porro shot wide after an error from Alisson early in the second half. Had Postecoglou seen his team’s best chance come and go? Spurs being Spurs, it felt that way when Porro failed to capitalise on Alisson losing possession after being driven to distraction by Lucas Bergvall, who was both the best player on the pitch and very lucky not to have been sent off for a second yellow card shortly before his winning moment.

There were four minutes left when Bergvall fired in the only goal after Dominic Solanke rolled substitute Ibrahima Konaté, turned and laid the ball into the path of his team-mate. Liverpool raged, claiming that the 18-year-old midfielder should have been off after taking out Kostas Tsimikas before scoring his first goal for Spurs since joining last summer. Arne Slot would later note sarcastically that Postecoglou had grumbled about refereeing decisions after Spurs lost to Newcastle last weekend.

But take nothing away from Postecoglou. So often criticised for his gung-ho approach, this was a more resolute version of Spurs. They did not overcommit, their midfield setup was more conservative, they were not caught on the counterattack and, when it comes to whether Postecoglou’s insistence that he is building for the future should be taken seriously, it was hard to look beyond how this victory centred around the performances of players with their best years ahead of them.

It was not just Bergvall. Spence, 24, made the crowd roar when he jumped into a crunching tackle on Conor Bradley in the first half and there was a lovely moment after half-time, Archie Gray winning possession on the edge of the Spurs area, stepping out of central defence, gliding as he moved forward before releasing Dejan Kulusevski with a beautiful pass with the outside of his right foot.

Gray, remember, is 18. He is predominantly a midfielder, elegant and controlled, but is filling in at the back because of Spurs’ injury crisis.

Mature beyond his years, Gray’s sacrifice sets an example. He was not overawed by marking Diogo Jota, who was not given a sniff of goal, and his excellence helped Antonin Kinsky, the 21-year-old Czech goalkeeper on his debut.

“I pray to God I’m the beneficiary of their talent,” Postecoglou said of the tyros. He raved about Gray and loved how Bergvall neutralised Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Curtis Jones. Liverpool, strangely underpowered, never got going. There were so many loose passes, so many heavy touches. Slot seemed bewildered.

Liverpool will expect to get the job done at Anfield in the second leg on 6 February. They still had enough moments in the final third. Alexander-Arnold, who began on the bench after his calamity against Manchester United, had a shot cleared off the line by Radu Dragusin. Núñez almost equalised with a volleyed flick, only for Kinsky to spring to his right and tip the ball wide.

There was hope for Spurs in that match-winning save from their new goalkeeper. Likened to Petr Cech, Kinsky only joined from Slavia Prague last weekend. Spurs have struggled since losing Guglielmo Vicario, with the 36-year-old Fraser Forster unable to adapt to Postecoglou’s demands to play out. They have a modern deputy now, and it was very Postecoglou to throw Kinsky straight in against Liverpool. Such bravery is why Spurs fans remain desperate for this to work.

Arne Slot bemoaned Liverpool’s ill fortune as they slipped to a last-gasp 1-0 defeat at Tottenham in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final; a rare setback in an otherwise serene season.

Liverpool were expecting to see a second yellow card for the Spurs midfielder, Lucas Bergvall, after he cut through Kostas Tsimikas, who was forced off for treatment. But the referee, Stuart Attwell, spared Bergvall and, with Tsimikas still off the pitch, Bergvall ran on to a Dominic Solanke pass to score the decisive goal.

Attwell had earlier made a piece of history when he announced to the stadium via his microphone that the VAR had disallowed a Solanke goal for offside. Spurs would overcome the disappointment and they will take the advantage to Anfield for the second leg on 6 February.

“I saw Ange [Postecoglou, the Spurs manager] sat here on Sunday, unhappy with decisions made,” Slot said, with a nod towards the Spurs manager’s grievances with the referee during his team’s 2-1 Premier League loss against Newcastle.

“People say decisions even themselves out but I am not a believer of that. I believe you can be unlucky or lucky in decisions in a season. Yes, a decision went against them on Sunday and went in favour of them today, which, of course, is very unlucky for us. A moment like this … if you go down to 10 men for a few seconds against a team as good as Tottenham – it is far from ideal.

“I think anyone would prefer the card was given [for Bergvall] than have advantage played 40 yards from their own goal. The other question is: was it reckless enough to play advantage and come back and say the tackle was still reckless? And enough to give a yellow. He [Attwell] had to tell everyone what his decision [on the disallowed Solanke goal] was but unfortunately he didn’t have to do it for this decision. The good thing is there is a second leg but it’s a far from ideal position for us.”

The Liverpool captain, Virgil van Dijk, said: “I think it was quite obvious it was going to be a second yellow [for Bergvall]. It was pretty clear. And a minute later he scores the winner … a coincidence.

“He [the referee] made a mistake in my opinion and I told him that. He thinks he didn’t but it was quite obvious and everyone on the sidelines knew it was supposed to be a yellow.

“There’s a linesman there, a fourth official there, there’s VAR, a referee and he doesn’t get a second yellow. I’m not saying this is the reason why we lost tonight but it was a big moment in the game.”

Postecoglou saluted his players, who overcame the adversity of seeing Rodrigo Bentancur taken from the field on a stretcher in the 15th minute after a worrying collapse. Spurs reported at half-time that the midfielder was conscious and talking.

On the Bergvall controversy, he added: “He wasn’t lucky to be on the pitch. If the advantage gets played and it’s not a cynical tackle, then it’s not a yellow. We’ve been screaming for it in the last two months and that’s what we’ve been told.”

Postecoglou also bemoaned the innovation of referees announcing VAR decisions inside the stadium. “I’m really surprised at how people in this country are so easily letting the game change so much so quickly,” he said. “It’s changed more since VAR has come in since I’ve been involved than in the past 50 years. I mean, did everyone really love the announcement today? [But] this is what the people want. That’s what I keep getting told.

“The game is changing on the basis of technology, and I’m saying why isn’t anyone speaking up about it? Especially in this country. You guys think you’re custodians of the game, you’ve got a song that says ‘it’s coming home’, this is your game, and yet it takes an Aussie from the other side of the world to be the one that’s most conservative about changes.”

Tottenham feared it was going to be a story about a fresh take on VAR pain. There were 77 minutes on the clock, this Carabao Cup semi-final had finally started to bubble and Dominic Solanke thought he had put Spurs in front. It was not only a fine finish from Pedro Porro’s searching through-ball but a goal of rich narrative possibility. This was a striker, remember, who had not enjoyed himself at Liverpool earlier in his career.

Enter the referee, Stuart Attwell, to explain, live and miked up, that Solanke had been offside. Attwell even blew his whistle into his microphone, which was a bit jarring. And yet there would be a twist. A glorious one in Spurs’s eyes, one to fire the dream of a first trophy since 2008. And one to have Liverpool raging. Lucas Bergvall, the precociously talented Spurs midfielder, ought to have been sent off for cleaning out Kostas Tsimikas. He was already on a yellow card.

But now there Bergvall was, time almost up, striding onto a cut-back from Solanke to lash past Alisson. The stadium descended into bedlam. For Liverpool, there were recriminations, a rare bump in the road under Arne Slot.

Ange Postecoglou is not exactly spoilt for selection choices at present; how he must envy Slot, whose strong starting XI was entirely by design. He had left a host of key players back on Merseyside for the quarter-final win at Southampton. Not here. Even his bench felt like a statement.

It was easy to feel the ghosts of Liverpool’s previous visit; the 6-3 league win before Christmas, a scoreline that flattered Spurs. Postecoglou is not one for compromise but there have been a few tweaks lately; the full-backs not bombing on so much, the midfield slightly more solid.

Postecoglou had started with Rodrigo Bentancur and Yves Bissouma in front of the back four but he was forced to change in the early running. It was not immediately clear what had happened to Bentancur after Son Heung-min returned a Spurs corner into the danger area and Radu Dragusin drew a smart save out of Alisson.

Bentancur had thrown himself into a stooping header from the initial delivery and he simply did not move from the ground, players from both teams waving the medics on straight away. Bentancur was treated for roughly eight minutes before he was taken away on a stretcher. The lack of any TV replays of the incident when it happened reinforced the severity of it; the worry levels. Spurs would report at half-time that Bentancur was conscious, talking and bound for a hospital check-up.

Postecoglou introduced Brennan Johnson on the right wing, moved Dejan Kulusevski inside and it was more like 4-3-3 with Bergvall staying high most of the time in central midfield. The responsibility on Bissouma was huge and he played it fast and loose, picking up a first-half booking after finding himself on the wrong side of Diogo Jota.

Liverpool started slowly; there were errors from them on the ball – a high number of them. Some required double-takes. What, really? Slot’s team had to reshuffle themselves when Jarell Quansah felt something and went off just before the half-hour. On came Wataru Endo; he had played in central defence at Southampton.

Liverpool grew as a first half that featured 11 additional minutes wore on. Conor Bradley, who started ahead of Trent Alexander-Arnold at right-back, was a physical, driving presence. The visitors threatened to get in with overlaps up the left.

Chances were at a premium before the break. Son crossed for Solanke on 22 minutes but the centre-forward could not get the backheel to work. Solanke might have been offside.

Liverpool’s best moment came when Tsimikas teed up Alexis Mac Allister with a cross. It was on a plate but Mac Allister headed straight at Antonin Kinsky, who had been thrust straight into the team after his arrival from Slavia Prague on Sunday. There was almost a horror moment for Kinsky when he slipped when addressing a routine shot from Cody Gakpo before recovering just in time.

Kinsky had the gumption to make the ‘calm down’ gesture; it was all under control. What a baptism it was for the 21-year-old, who had taken part in only two training sessions with his new teammates. He has played in the Europa League this season. This was another level.

The tensions simmered. Postecoglou was animated in his technical area, which feels like an increasingly regular sight. He was on his knees in anguish just before the hour when Spurs blew a golden chance for the opening goal.

Alisson just about got away with a drag-back under pressure from Bergvall but not when he dithered and was robbed by the young Swede. The ball broke for Porro, whose shot was blocked by Virgil van Dijk with Alisson away from his goal. Another break, a Bergvall pass and there was Porro, gloriously placed. His chipped finish lacked conviction and drifted wide.

Slot flexed his muscles, introducing Alexander-Arnold, Luis Díaz and Darwin Núñez in a single swoop. His team pushed. Salah flickered. He would release Núñez up the inside right; Kinsky made a big block. There was also the moment when Alexander-Arnold unloaded a first-time shot from an angle of venomous power which flew past Kinsky. Dragusin would make an excellent clearance off the line behind him.

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.

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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.

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Updated at 19.49 CET

Ange Postecoglou has backed Son Heung-min to rediscover his best form and suggested even Mohamed Salah would struggle in the current Tottenham team.

Son, who has seen Spurs trigger their one-year option on his contract to tie him down until the summer of 2026, goes into Wednesday night’s ­Carabao Cup semi-final first leg at home to ­Liverpool with an unforgiving ­spotlight on his performances.

The club captain’s numbers are down this season – seven goals and six assists from 23 appearances. Salah, meanwhile, has an astonishing 21 goals and 17 assists in 27 games for Liverpool.

Postecoglou wanted to highlight the context, which takes in Spurs’s troubles and how Liverpool have streaked clear at the top ofthe ­Premier League and Champions League tables. Spurs, who remain mired in a selection crisis, have won three of 14 matches, the nadir being the 6-3 home defeat by Liverpool in the league on 22 December.

“People need to have a little bit of context,” Postecoglou said. “Mo is a world-class player but if you put him in our team now I’m not sure he’ll have that same level of performance because of the situation we’re in as a group.

“You need a team that’s in good form, creating opportunities, playing on the front foot, having a really solid foundation of a defence that is ­cohesive. None of these things exist at the moment [at Spurs]. We’re ­relying on individual moments.

“Mo is an unbelievable player but he’s playing in a fantastic team that are flying. I’d hazard to say that if you put Sonny in Liverpool’s team, I reckon his goalscoring return would be decent.

“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.”

Postecoglou is under mounting pressure and he admitted that “not a great deal has changed” since the 6-3 Liverpool game in terms of the overall situation: injuries, suspensions, the strain on the squad, especially at the back and across the front three.

Definitely out through injury are Guglielmo Vicario, Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Ben Davies, ­Destiny Udogie, Wilson Odobert and Richarlison. James Maddison and Pape Sarr are banned. Mikey Moore could return to the bench. Postecoglou said Richarlison may be back for next Wednesday’s league match at Arsenal.

On the upside, Spurs did have a free midweek last week and Son played for only 28 minutes as a substitute in Saturday’s league defeat at home to Newcastle. He has been in need of a breather. The Czech Republic Under-21 international goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky has also arrived for £12.5m from Slavia Prague. Postecoglou must decide whether to put him straight into the lineup ahead of Fraser Forster and Brandon Austin.

What the manager once again made clear was the need for ­January reinforcements. In the context of a discussion about the impressive contributions of the centre-forward Dominic Solanke, Postecoglou said: “Hopefully in the very near future we get some help for him and then I think we’ll see him go to another level.”

Pressed on whether that meant a new signing up front or the return of an existing player, he replied: “Both. It’s hopefully what we can do but I wouldn’t suggest tomorrow. Not a centre-forward but I think we need some help in the front half if we can get it. We know that all being well, in seven days, Richy’s back and he’ll definitely help Dom.”

Spurs have an interest in the Paris Saint-Germain forward Randal Kolo Muani and Postecoglou did not pull down the shutters when the player’s name was mentioned. “Look, we are still trying to help the squad,” he said.

Postecoglou’s focus is on the Liverpool semi-final and, plainly, winning a trophy would give his project a shot in the arm – and boost his job security. He was reminded that the Spurs chairman, Daniel Levy, sacked José Mourinho six days before the club took on Manchester City in the 2021 Carabao Cup final.

“So, just drop out at the semi-final, you reckon?” Postecoglou said with a smile. “I don’t need greater [job] security. All I see is a group of players who are giving absolutely everything; every person at this football club pushing hard every day.

“The results are on me. It’s my responsibility to change that. And if it doesn’t change, then of course I’m the one who should take whatever ramifications there are to it. But I don’t need any more security than seeing what I see every day – that the club and everyone at the club is totally supportive of what we’re ­trying to do.”