KLOPP IS BACK ON TOP
Firmino’s late header breaks resistance of Spurs as Reds reach summit
ANDrEw robertson whipped in t he corner and there he was, roberto Firmino, alone at last, free of the shackles Tottenham had placed on this g a me, and the champions.
He lost Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, he slipped away from Harry Kane, and he met the ball as sweetly as any in his career, powering it past goalkeeper Hugo Lloris with just seconds remaining.
The better team won, and return to the top of the table, but heavens i t was close. In an alternate reality we could have been discussing this match in entirely different terms.
Masterclass. Had either of Spurs’ chances in the 63rd minute gone in, that is the word that would have been bandied about this morning. A Jose Mourinho masterclass of efficiency, organisation, counterpunching and defence.
Tottenham could have won this. Some might argue they should have won given the quality of the chances they created. It would have been tough on Liverpool, who made the game, and were considerably more ambitious, but sport doesn’t work like that.
A tactical triumph is worth the same as an aesthetic one. Spurs might not be pretty for 90 minutes, but they are brilliantly conceived and, in full counter-attacking flow, thrilling to watch.
And it works, often. It could have worked here, particularly in the second half when Tottenham risked just a little more and made Liverpool seem vulnerable in spells. The 63rd minute was one such moment: two Tottenham chances, both of which they would have been expected to score, and one of which fell to their striker, not his support staff.
Kane does not miss many, but his header from a Son Heung-min corner should have found the net. Instead, trying to bury it into the bottom of the goal, he misdirected it, nailing the turf instead, the ball bouncing up and over the bar.
Seconds earlier, Son’s flicked header had sent Steven Bergwijn away one- on- one. It was his second good chance of the half, but this one was the best. He should have scored. Bergwijn steered his shot past the far post.
There were other opportunities. Alisson played a poor pass out after 50 minutes and Kane tried to l ob him, missing narrowly as the Brazilian backpedalled. In the 78th minute, Kane tried another shot that flashed past a post.
If this makes the game sound one- sided, far from it. Liverpool spent huge swathes camped in Tottenham’s half. But so do a lot of teams. That is the Tottenham way. They are not scared to defend, to be without the ball. For all their ball retention, Liverpool had few chances in the second half.
Sadio Mane turned Serge Aurier beautifully and struck the bar, and Mo Salah forced a fine save from Lloris after 57 minutes.
But given the levels of pressure and possession, there was not a great deal of end product. Liverpool saw upwards of 70 per cent of the ball, yet Tottenham could have won. That Liverpool did speaks volumes for Jurgen Klopp’s mentality monsters. This was a win of great guts in a season that may yet be won by the team with the most courage.
The problem with Liverpool, for Tottenham, is t hat Klopp’s players work as hard, if not even harder, defensively; the problem with Tottenham, for Liverpool, is that their counter-attacking threat is as quick, if not quicker.
One might think, then, that the teams would cancel each other out — yet there were goals at each end in the first half and plenty of action.
Most of it was in Tottenham’s penalty area, true, but the visitors’ equaliser and odd moments when they broke sharply revealed the danger. No team can ever feel safe against Tottenham without a two-goal cushion, even one as good as Liverpool.
This was never going to be a cat-and-mouse encounter because that is not the way Liverpool play.
There were less than 30 seconds gone when they won their first corner, via a deflected shot from
Trent Alexander-Arnold. It was all Liverpool early on; not just possession and pressure but real chances. A f ree- kick after 11 minutes found Firmino in far too much space and his header forced the first save of the game from Spurs captain Lloris.
Tottenham, by contrast, were happy to sit back and absorb pressure. Their first punt at goal was much more speculative, struck by Aurier from 40 yards out on the touchline. with away supporters in, or a full house living on its nerves, there might have been a reaction. Instead, it sailed just over the bar to silence, which was less than it deserved.
A robertson cross after 21 minutes found Salah, who shot directly at Lloris, but the Egyptian had better luck with the next one, and Liverpool t ook a deserved lead.
It was the increasingly i mpressive Curtis Jones who forced the chance, bursting into the area and dispossessed in the tackle, the ball travelling to Salah, who shot.
It was one of those fortuitous moments, the ball coming off not one defender, but two — Eric Dier and Toby Alderweireld attempting the block and the ball ricocheting off the pair, which accounted for the looping, spinning trajectory that sent it over Lloris’s head and into the far corner. The delayed reaction from the small gathering in the Kop suggested they were as bamboozled as Spurs’ defenders.
Just three minutes later, Aurier had his pocket picked by Jones, and Lloris was forced into action again, but Tottenham only need one chance under Mourinho these days, particularly if it falls to one of two men. In the 33rd minute, it did.
Giovani Lo Celso had barely got on the ball to that point and maybe, when he did, Liverpool had grown a little complacent faced with Spurs’ limited ambition. If so, they paid a heavy price. No one closed Lo Celso down, and by the time he released Son into space, it was too late. Alexander-Arnold was nowhere, Son was somewhere and that place was steaming in on goal.
He gave Alisson what football men of a certain age call ‘the eyes’ and finished low inside his near
post. A brilliant counter-attacking goal, and the 23rd this season to feature Son or Kane as provider or scorer. That’s 23 of 26 scored by Tottenham.
After which, as you were. Liverpool the jets of water, Spurs the sponge, soaking it up.
Firmino had a shot on the turn that Lloris tipped away diving full-length after 35 minutes. Mane cut inside and had a shot saved six minutes l ater. Tottenham emerged with a bit more lead in the pencil after half-time and from their first attack Bergwijn shot across the face of goal. Had it fallen to one of the other two, who knows?
LIVERPOOL (4-3-3): Alisson; AlexanderArnold, R Williams, Fabinho, Robertson; Jones, Henderson, Wijnaldum; Salah, Firmino, Mane. Subs not used: Keita, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Minamino, Origi, Phillips, Kelleher, N Williams. Booked: None. TOTTENHAM (4-2-3-1): Lloris; Aurier, Alderweireld, Dier, Davies; Sissoko, Hojbjerg; Bergwijn (Reguillon 76), Lo Celso (Moura 58), Son (Alli 87); Kane. Subs not used: Hart, Winks, Rodon, Ndombele. Booked: Hojbjerg, Lo Celso. Man of the match: Roberto Firmino. Referee: Anthony Taylor.