It’s a bit premature to say this was a night when Tottenham’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. Ange Postecoglou couldn’t be more effusive afterwards, and that’s understandable. It might well save Tottenham’s season, just as Liverpool’s has a slight sense of lag. The Premier League leaders were still very energised about the controversial 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 reported he was awake and speaking and was going to hospital for further checks.
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.
Postecoglou himself would say it should be about Spurs’ victory. Make no mistake: this developing team played for him, and that at a club where there has been a recent history of troubled managers suddenly bottoming out. Spurs may instead be on the brink of one of their best moments in years.
The tie is, of course, far from over given they have to play at Anfield in a month, but it did feel something of a recharge for Postecoglou’s team. He so badly needed this, even as no one outside of Spurs would have expected it.
They have had so many injuries, to the point emergency goalkeeping signing Antonin Kinsky, 21, had to immediately make his debut. They have had worse form, with all the good feeling from Postecoglou’s early reign dissipating to the drudgery of so many defeats, amid debates about the manager’s style.
You wouldn’t have guessed any of that had you just watched this game on its own terms. It was not just one of Spurs’ tightest displays of the season, but also one of their sharpest. They gave little away, while causing Liverpool repeated problems, certainly in the second half.
Postecoglou joked that his “midfield set-up was a bit more conservative” with the punchline that he “only had three midfielders to choose from”.
So many of his younger players stepped up, especially Bergvall and Gray. The latter was so measured, something that was all the more impressive given that he was facing in-form attackers Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah. They could do little, much like their team.
It was actually a continuation of Liverpool’s performance against Manchester United, which may raise a slight concern for Slot.
There were changes, of course, but it was still a strong team. Even Wataru Endo, on as a centre-half sub for Jarell Quansah, has at least played in that position before.
Slot still insisted they were the stronger team, if not at the levels of the 6-3, but that was dubious.
A lack of synchronicity was seen in Salah needlessly taking the ball off Alexis Mac Allister’s foot when a shot was there to be hit, before powering it over the bar. There were otherwise long periods when they didn’t trouble Kinsky, at least in terms of efforts on goal.
On one occasion the impressive debutant was beaten by a superbly speared Trent Alexander-Arnold volley, but Radu Dragusin was there to clear the ball off the line.
Kinsky did have one moment of slight hesitation when he was pressed with the ball at his feet in the first half, but it was nothing like what the much more experienced goalkeeper Alisson endured in the second.
The Brazilian attempted one of his Cruyff turns in the box against Bergvall, only for the midfielder to get up and immediately embarrass Alisson by clipping the ball away from him. Pedro Porro then chipped it over Alisson with impudence… but also a bit too much width. The ball curved just wide.
There was a growing sense of Liverpool asking for a bit more trouble than they usually do, and Spurs increasingly fancying it. They looked like they had it on 80 minutes, Dominic Solanke seemed to finally get the better of their high line, surging in on goal to slide the ball past Alisson.
It was just offside, as Stuart Atwell eventually announced to the crowd in a historic new audio enhancement. When asked about the new “innovation”, Slot quipped: “It would be more interesting for everyone if he explained why there wasn’t a second yellow card.”
The source of his complaint quickly followed the Solanke moment, as Bergvall got a deserved winner, for him and Spurs. Liverpool would insist they were the better side and that shouldn’t have counted in any case. Bergvall had gone in on Kostas Tsimikas in what looked a second yellow.
Atwell didn’t caution him, though, and he was free to benefit from some slack defending. Someone who was almost as impressive, Porro, initially played the searching ball that went right through Liverpool. That saw Solanke collect after physically getting the better of Ibrahima Konate. The ball was played back to Bergvall, who slotted in the neatest of finishes. Alisson had no chance. Liverpool still had some grievances, with Slot’s assistant ultimately getting booked for remonstrating.
Slot, who had by then calmed down, spoke philosophically about how Postecoglou had been complaining about decisions on Saturday and here was one where he was lucky and Liverpool were unlucky. The Dutch coach actually had a sympathetic ear in Postecoglou who spoke at length about how surprised he is that English football culture – “the home of the game” – has allowed itself to be so impacted by VAR, with only “an Aussie from the other side of the world” speaking out.
On the new in-game VAR announcement, Postecoglou asked: “Did everyone really enjoy the announcement, did it give you a buzz?”
Postecoglou has said this kind of thing before, but this went further, and he probably felt a moment of victory was a better time to do it. It also goes down well, revitalising his man-of-the-people image.
He will certainly have got a buzz from victory, and what it meant. Spurs have a toe in the final, although with a daunting leg at Anfield to come.
It may define their season. Liverpool need a slight recharge in theirs.
