Reds end Klopp’s jinx at Wembley in Spurs win
Jurgen Klopp’s Wembley jinx is over as Liverpool kept up their perfect start to the season with a commanding performance.
They deservedly headed north victorious as they had far too much for a disappointing Spurs, who were laboured for periods and flattered by the scoreline.
Klopp had lost here with both Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool on three previous visits as a manager, costing him two cup finals and three league points.
There was no trophy at stake on this occasion, but the German will not mind if this victory is a stepping stone to the prize all Reds’ fans want – the Premier League title – next May.
Goals from Georginio Wijnaldum and Roberto Firmino did the damage and there could have been more, with home goalkeeper Michel Vorm having a day to forget.
It is now five out of five in the league for Liverpool and the ideal way to begin a spell of seven games in 23 days and manager Klopp was purring afterwards.
“It was an outstanding performance,” he said. “Winning here is so difficult. We could have scored more. It was our best game of the season, for sure. That was our best performance against Spurs in all the years I have been here. We’ve won a few games, which is good. I’m not the sort of person to wait for problems, but I know they will come.”
But it was another bad day for Spurs in a fortnight to forget. It is successive losses in the league, there are further problems with their new stadium and captain goalkeeper Hugo Lloris was found guilty of drink-driving. England captain Harry Kane once again struggled up front, but manager Mauricio Pochettino refused to pin the blame on his star striker. “It is a collective problem,” he said. “I am not going to point the finger at one player.
“I am happy with all the players, but the circumstances are what they are. The challenge this season is massive and we need to give the players time. I don’t want to complain about the World Cup, but this is the toughest season we have faced.
“It is a challenge with a team that arrived a few days before the start of the season.”
This should have been the first game at the new White Hart Lane but, instead, as delays and problems mount up, the club are still at Wembley where they may have to remain until the New Year.
And there was drama as soon as the action got under way as Liverpool thought they had taken the lead after only 40 seconds. Firmino touched James Milner’s in-swinging cross past Vorm, standing in for the injured Lloris, but it was disallowed as Sadio Mane had been fractionally offside as the cross came in.
Firmino was almost in again a minute later after another superb pass from Milner, but this time Eric Dier got back to make a vital saving tackle.
Dier was almost the villain, though, when he misplaced a back pass in between his two central defenders to let in Mohamed Salah.
He raced through on goal, but his shot was parried up in the air by Vorm. After his 44 goals last season, you expected the Egyptian to find the net but, on this occasion, he was not quite as clinical.
Spurs started to grow into the game and Alisson was called into action for the first time as he held Christian Eriksen’s free-kick. But Liverpool had been the better side and they finally broke through after 39 minutes.
Vorm flapped badly at Milner’s corner and when Dier could only partially head clear, Wijnaldum looped a header over Kieran Trippier on the line and in, despite Vorm’s attempt to redeem his initial mistake, with goalline technology there to aid referee Michael Oliver.
Remarkably for the Dutchman, this was his 19th league goal in English football, but the first of those away from home for either Liverpool or Newcastle.
The Reds emerged after the break intent on finding a killer second goal and they were very close to finding it.
New Scotland captain Andy Robertson floated a cross beyond Vorm, which bounced off the top of the crossbar. But Spurs came close to an equaliser when Lucas Moura drove into the box and fired a shot against the base of a post.
However, Liverpool turned the screw and eventually doubled their lead. Mane was released down the left and he fired a teasing low cross along the six-yard line.
At full stretch, Jan Vertonghen slid the ball against his own post and, after it slipped through Vorm’s hands, Firmino gleefully knocked it in from a yard out.
There were further chances to kill the game off completely, but they were squandered, and Spurs halved the deficit in injury time as substitute Erik Lamela volleyed in.