Key events
GOAL! Tottenham 1-2 Liverpool (Richarlison 82)
Spurs pull one back! Liverpool fail to clear Porro’s outswinger. Van Dijk swipes and misses the ball completely, Richarlison shoots low into the corner from about seven yards. There’s a VAR check and I honestly have no idea why.
81 min: Richarlison immediately wins a free-kick, which Porro curls into the Liverpool box. Van Dijk puts the ball out for a corner.
80 min: Spurs substitution: Richarlison on, Kolo Muani off.
79 min: Ibrahimma Konate has his name taken for a foul on Randal Kolo Muani, prompting presumably ironic cheers from the home crowd for the referee. They’ve had precious little else to cheer about this evening.
75 min: “Is there a rule I wasn’t aware of where a foul doesn’t get considered for a card if the player you’re fouling scores?” asks Tom of the challenge on Isak as he fired goalwards. “Under any other circumstances and anywhere else ok the pitch, that challenge by Van de Ven is at least being looked at.”
Well, everything is looked at these days but if it was a foul and one worth no more than a yellow, then my understanding is that VAR are allowed to intervene. I’d need to check but I’m a bit busy at the moment!
73 min: Liverpool turn the screw and Florian Wirtz misses an extremely presentable chance with a far post volley across the face of goal after some excellent build-up play from Szoboszlai and Frimpong. The flag goes up and his blushes are spared.
71 min: Spurs double-substitution: Wilson Odobert and Joao Palhinha on for Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall.
69 min: There’s a yellow card for somebody on the Spurs bench, possibly Frank or one of his assistants.
GOAL! Tottenham 0-2 Liverpool (Ekitike 66)
Liverpool double their lead! Hugo Ekitike outjumps and outmuscles Christian Romero to connect with a Jeremie Frimpong cross from the right and power a header past Vicario, into the top corner. That’s a terrific header. Romero complains about being fouled but in truth, he was just bullied.
66 min: Spurs go close to nabbing an equaliser when a Muani shot takes a wicked delfection, loops over Alisson and caresses the cross bar. I thought that was going to drop into the goal!
63 min: So, back to that goal. Romero gave the ball away with an inexplicably bad pass that was intercepted by Wirtz. The Argentinian then compounded his error by charging out to try and retrieve the ball, leaving a gaping hole in the Spurs defence. Wirtz promptly took advantage, sliding the ball through to Isak, whose finish was as tidy as it was costly. It looks like he might have suffered a serious ankle injury as a result of Micky van de Ven’s last-ditch effort to prevent him shooting.
62 min: Tottenham substitution just after the goal: Brennan Johnson on for Mohammed Kudus.
59 min: Micky van de Ven slid in to try and block just as Isak pulled the trigger and he caught the Liverpool striker’s ankle in a kind of scissors motion between his two meaty thighs. The stretcher comes on but Isak elects to limp off with the assistance of two medics. He’s replaced by Jeremie Frimpong.
GOAL! Tottenham 0-1 Liverpool (Isak 56)
Liverpool lead! A Romero clearance is blocked, Wirtz slide the ball into the path of a darting Isak run and the Swede fires past Vicario before getting clattered by Van de Ven. Isak eschews any form of celebration in going down hurt again. He’s flat on his back.
54 min: Liverpool win a corner. Szoboszlai hits the ball long past the far post, it finds its way to Curtis Jones and moments later Isak goes to ground, writhing in pain after Bentancur had caught him on the inner thigh while following through as he hacked the ball clear. It’s technically not a foul but it looks like it ought to be.
52 min: A vaguely promising move (it’s all relative!) upfield involving Muani, Bergvall and Spence breaks down when the Englishman runs into traffic and loses the ball.
50 min: Porro breaks upfield and slides the ball wide to Kudus on the right. He looks up to survey his options and … passes the ball backwards. The groan from the crowd is audiable. It’s worth noting that Tottenham were at this sort of resolutely unambitious craic even before the first half dismissal of Xavi Simons.
48 min: Florian Wirtz picks out a Kerkez run to the byline but the Hungarian international’s pull-back into the penalty area is intercepted and cleared by Archie Gray. Spurs are immediately under the cosh in this second half.
47 min: A Szoboszlai cross into the Spurs box is headed clear by Micky van de Ven.
Second half: Tottenham 0-0 Liverpool
46 min: Play resumes and Liverpool have brought on Alexander Isak in place of Conor Bradley, who finished the first half hobbling. Szoboszlai moves to right-back.
An email: “Did Spurs already fire their manager and hire Diego Simone when we weren’t looking?” asks Richard McGahey. “The level of cynical, physical play is quite something.”
More punditry: “I don’t think that was a red,” writes Peter Oh. “At most, the clumsy challenge by one Dutch international on another deserved an Oranje.” Boom!
Oranje Boom, geddit?
An email: Tottenham fan Nico is here to defend the indefensible. “As a Spurs fan I do believe that challenge is stupid, reckless and a probably a red card to some,” he begins and you know what b-word is coming next. “But also looks far worse in slo-mo than it actually is. A yellow was enough for the ref and there isn’t any evidence to suggest a ‘clear and obvious error’.
“I believe playing replays to the on-field official in real time means we will see less on-field decisions overturned with no further communication from the (tossing) VAR, and removes the pantomime of the ref jogging over to waste minutes of the fans’ time for a foregone conclusion.
“Can we either just overturn the decision and save the sanity of everyone involved or ask the grown-up question, how is repeated slow motion replays with a person in your ear saying ‘you’ve got this wrong’ a fair review?”
I mean, Tottenham’s players have been wasting hours on end of their fans’ time at their own stadium for well over a year now but if you want to get stuck into the ref for hijacking 60 seconds of it in order to show a red card that could not be more justified, fill your boots. Interestingly, on Sky’s coverage, Daniel Sturridge concurs with the “looks worse in slo-mo” defence, then follows up with the “he’s not that kind of player” doozie. You love to see it!
Tottenham 0-0 Liverpool
Half-time: A half of little or no quality ends with the deadlock still intact but Spurs down to 10 men following the dismissal of Xavi Simons for a nasty challenge on Virgil van Dijk that was originally deemed worthy of a booking, only to be upgraded after video assistant referee Stuart Attwell advised John Brooks to have another look on his pitchside monitor. Before Ximons got his marching order, Spurs had the pick of what few chances there were, with Randal Kolo Muani heading weakly at Alisson from six yards when he had plenty of goal to aim at.
45+5 min: Liverpool corner. Szoboszlai’s corner is half-cleared towards Wirtz, whose piledriver is blocked by Rodrgio Bentancur. It’s half-time.
45+4 min: Vicario makes a mess of a clearance and looks accusingly at the turf. Spurs get away with it and clear the ball, despite their own pitch appearing to join the referee and the media in conspiring against them.
45+2 min: Bradley continues to receive treatment with referee John Brooks and Alisson looking on. He gets to his feet and limps to the touchline before being summoned back on.
45 min: Spence picks Bradley’s pocket and canters up the inside left. He advances towards the Liverpool penalty area and goes down under a “challenge” from the backtrackling Liverpool full-back. Despite Spence’s appeals for a penalty, it was no more than an accidental collision. Bradley remains on the floor receiving treatment.
43 min: Another Liverpool corner leads to a Spurs counter-attack, this one begun by Romero and ended when Bergvall runs into retreating traffic. Spurs are playing (even) more defensively since Simons’ dismissal but are looking very dangerous on the break.
40 min: Liverpool corner. Sobozslai’s inswinger is punched clear by Vicario, who sends Kudus on his way. He picks out Porro with a crossfield pass but the Spaniard’s cross into the Liverpool penalty area is a little wild and too powerful for Djed Spence to connect with.
38 min: Alisson wins a 50-50 ball with Muani, is unable to hold on to it and then has to win another 50-50 with Kudus after the ball is hoyed towards no-mans land near the edge of the Liverpool box. Good(ish) goalkeeping.
37 min: Florian Wirtz plays a give and go with Kerkez before ferreting his way into the Tottenham penalty area and pulling the ball back towards Ekitike. Spurs clear before he can get a shot away.
34 min: The only scant consolation for Tottenham is that Simons might as well not have been on the field for the opening half-hour. That snide, nasty, completely needless foul on Van Dijk was his first contribution of note since he got the ball rolling at kick-off. On the plus side for Simons, he gets Christmas and the new year off.
