With a chance to go to Wembley for the Carabao Cup Final against Newcastle, Tottenham Hotspur squandered a 1-0 first-leg lead against Liverpool with a 4-0 defeat at Anfield on Thursday to lose on aggregate 4-1.
Many knew the stakes on the line, but heading into Anfield, where the club hadn’t won since the 2010/11 Premier League season, Spurs had a chance to bring hope for a topsy-turvy season thus far.
Putting together a lineup that saw the debut of Kevin Danso at center-back and Pedro Porro getting a much-needed rest — albeit in the biggest game of the season — the full-back partnership of Djed Spence and Archie Gray did their best against the best team in England and quite possibly the world.
Facing relentless pressure from Liverpool from the opening kick, Spurs were lucky in many instances to have Richarlison win free kicks to ease the pressure off.
But Liverpool could smell blood from the very start as Spurs' defensive partnership of Ben Davies and Danso had to put in key blocks in the early portions of the game to even keep the hopes alive for many fans in attendance and watching.
Unable to do much on the attacking end as one key break that involved Richarlison and Dejan Kulusevski saw Kulusevski take on about six Liverpool players with no help or assistance to try and navigate an opportunity.
Liverpool got the leveler on aggregate by way of a midfield turnover between Yves Bissouma and Pape Sarr for the Reds to break free for Mohamed Salah to curl an outside the boot ball to the middle of the box for Darwin Nunez. Trying the spectacular bicycle kick attempt and missing completely, the ball bounced past the striker and into the path of the informed Cody Gakpo to volley it the first time for the tying goal.
Making matters worse, as the game was tied and the hopes of being able to survive another half barrage from Liverpool, Richarlison attempted to beat out a ball from a throw-in and instantly went down as he grabbed his calf. Unable to continue as he just came back a few weeks prior from another leg injury, the Brazilian was subbed off before added time, and the newest signing of Mathys Tel made his appearance to get the side into the break level at 1-1.
Coming out of the break, Liverpool was hunting for the second goal as minutes in, a corner flick from Dominik Szoboszlai was quickly saved off reaction time from Antonin Kinsky. But, minutes later, after a brilliant save, the Czech keeper gave away a pen as he went in late on a challenge to get the ball off Nunez. With that, Salah stepped up to the penalty spot and buried his shot into the top corner.
Forced to make changes that saw Spurs going for the tying goal and being susceptible to letting more goals leak, the additions of Pedro Porro and Lucas Bergvall for Sarr and Bissouma were nice to see in the beginning. It allowed for more press from fresher legs and a chance for Spence to go to the right wing to take on Andy Robertson. (Spence...another top display from him).
Liverpool sealed the game for good in the 75th minute as a counter attack that was finished off by Szoboszlai put the game away for good. Liverpool added one final goal in the 80th minute off a Virgil Van Dijk header off a corner.
Being close to the final and having a chance to shake off the criticism of not winning anything in a long time, Spurs were outclassed by the best team in Europe. The criticism can be fair for how the game went and not having another midfield that could break down Liverpool or stop the red hot attack from the side.