Tottenham 1 Liverpool 0: Bergvall’s winner gives Spurs first-leg advantage but game overshadowed by Bentancur injury
IT was the night when Tottenham’s youth recruitment drive finally started to make sense.
As 18-year-old Swedish midfielder Lucas Bergvall netted the late winner, his fellow teenager Archie Gray shone in defence and Ange Postecoglou had a rare night of joy and optimism.
https://twitter.com/SkyFootball/status/1877111980219105483Liverpool were fuming that Bergvall was still on the pitch when, on a yellow card for hacking down Luis Diaz, escaped punishment for a late sliding foul on Kostas Tsimikas.
The Reds’ Greek left-back was still off the pitch when Bergvall netted the winner from a slick move.
Spurs now take a slender lead to Anfield for the distant return leg of this Carabao Cup semi-final on February 6.
And Postecoglou’s boast of always winning a trophy in his second season at a club remains on course for fruition.
Dominic Solanke had an effort disallowed for offside – followed by a historic VAR announcement from miked-up ref Stuart Attwell.
But before all that drama, it felt as if everybody froze on a Siberian night in north London.
First they froze in horror when Rodrigo Bentancur lay motionless on the floor after an awkward fall and was carried off on a stretcher wearing an oxygen mask.
The news of Tottenham’s Uruguayan was positive but after that early shock the two sides who had served up a nine-goal thriller in the Premier League here last month, threatened a stalemate.
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Meanwhile supporters were freezing their wotsits off in Scott of the Antarctic temperatures.
Having taken just one point from their last four league matches, Spurs were in desperate need of one of their occasional stupidly good results.
Yet Postecoglou was still without ten senior players through injury or suspension and so newly-signed keeper Antonin Kinsky was handed a debut just two days after signing from Slavia Prague.
This was the only trophy Jurgen Klopp managed to win in his farewell quest for the quadruple last season but despite their shock home draw with struggling Manchester United, they arrived unbeaten in 24.
Slot felt confident enough to make three changes in defence as well as bringing in Diogo Jota up front.
Although two of Liverpool’s defensive call-ups – Kostas Tsimikas and Jarrell Quansah were guilty of seriously loose passes which put the visitors under the pump early on.
Quansah’s error led to a corner from which Bentancur attempted a diving header, missed the ball but crashed head-first into the turf.
The Uruguayan appeared to have been knocked out cold and after an eight-minute delay he was carried off on a stretcher, wearing an oxygen mask.
Alisson had pushed away a shot from Radu Dragusin while that drama was unfolding and soon Solanke got his legs in a tangle when he ought to have stuck away a low Son Heung-Min centre.
Salah dragged a shot wide after an exchange of passes with Gakpo as Liverpool finally started stretching the Spurs defence.
Quansah’s rare starting opportunity came to a premature end when he seemed to injure an ankle and Wataru Endo slotted into central defence.
Bentancur’s injury, quite understandably, quelled the feverish atmosphere among the home support and Spurs were struggling to raise themselves after those troubling scenes.
Yves Bissouma was booked for hacking down Curtis Jones but from the resulting free-kick Mac Allister could only head straight at Kinsky.
Liverpool were slowly but surely starting to get a grip on possession, their pass and move routines clicking into gear – although their finishing was wonky, Salah spooning one over and Gakpo opting to test Kinsky from distance when better options were available.
After the two injuries, there was a whopping 11 minutes of first-half injury time just as Jack Frost was starting to bare his teeth on a bitter north London night.
Overall, it was flat in the stands and on the pitch.
Thankfully, there was positive news at half-time that Bentancur was conscious and communicative.
Ten minutes after the restart, Alisson had a prolonged brainstorm – and yet Tottenham were still unable to take advantage.
From a back-pass, Liverpool’s Brazilian keeper clumsily attempted a Cruyff turn on Lucas Bervall, then played it straight to Pedro Porro, who had one shot blocked and spooned a second effort wide with the goal at his mercy.
Postecoglou fell to his knees and beat the ground with his fists.
Calamity keeping was clearly contagious as Kinsky almost dropped a Salah cross into his own goal.
Slot made a triple substitution in an attempt to break the stalemate – Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez and Trent Alexander-Arnold all arriving.
Archie Gray, growing rapidly into this makeshift role as a centre-half, was impressing with his nifty footwork playing the ball out of defence.
Liverpool’s subs were making them look a little more threatening and when Nunez latched on to an angled pass from Salah, Kinsky was off his line quickly to thwart the Uruguayan forward.
Then Alexander-Arnold pinged a shot from out wide which beat Kinsky but was hacked off the line by Dragusin.
But just as Liverpool were at their most menacing, Spurs found the net – a gorgeous curving pass from Porro releasing Solanke who rolled it past Alisson.
Yet the Spurs striker had strayed offside and so it was Attwell’s big historic moment – a piercingly high-pitched whistle followed by the ref announcing that ‘after a review, Solanke was offside’.
There was no great showmanship about Attwell taking to the mic, no Vegas residency is forthcoming.
But soon Spurs finally managed a legitimate strike – Porro’s diagonal ball out of defence located Solanke who held off Ibrahima Konate and laid off for Bervall to drill past Alisson – as Liverpool’s bench raged at the injustice.