Spurs subdue Liverpool and dream of Wembley

It’s a bit premature to say this was a night when Tottenham Hotspur’s young team came of age, but this 1-0 victory over Liverpool was an impressive show of maturity when they most needed it. An 18-year-old Lucas Bergvall appropriately settled it, crowning the fine work of fellow teenager Archie Gray.

- MIGUEL DELANEY

Ange Postecoglou couldn’t be more effusive afterwards, and that’s understandable. It might well save Tottenham Hotspur’s season, just as Liverpool’s has a slight sense of lag. The Premier League leaders were still very energised about the Lucas Bergvall goal that won this Carabao Cup semi-final first leg, with complaints that the goalscorer should have had a second booking, eventually seeing Arne Slot unusually lose his cool.

It was symbolic of a display where his Liverpool were nowhere near the smoothness of the opening months of the campaign. Duly, this was the first time this season they went two games without a win, after Sunday’s 2-2 draw against Manchester United.

The night looked like it could be overshadowed by a concerning moment where Rodrigo Bentancur looked like he lost consciousness for an eight-minute stoppage, but Spurs mercifully reported he was awake and speaking and was going to hospital for further checks. Postecoglou restated these reassuring details but didn’t want to speak further out of simple respect for the fact he isn’t a doctor.

Bentancur’s teammates went and won the match for him, all the more impressive given many of them lost 6-3 to the same opposition just weeks ago.

Such results did foster what Postecoglou admitted was “an emotional time”.

“I don’t feel that great that people who work at this club, our supporters, that they don’t have that feeling of victory,” he said. “It weighs heavily on me.”

Postecoglou and everyone else now has a real lift, as well as the hope of Wembley and maybe a trophy. The Australian’s comments were made in response to a question about his agitated recent media statements, and came after an impassioned discussion of VAR and how he feels it is ruining the game. That was to form something of a theme of the night.