Key events
71 min: Mamardashvili had been enjoying a good game up until that point. A couple of big saves. But that wasn’t good from the big Georgian. Liverpool respond by winning a corner down the left, thanks to some good work from Koumas.
GOAL! Liverpool 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur (Gallagher 69)
Marmoush curls the corner in from the left. Mamardashvili flaps under it, missing the ball altogether, and Gallagher can’t miss with a header from a couple of yards!
68 min: … so having said that, they turn up the intensity again, and Gallagher’s long-range shot is deflected over the bar, and from that corner …
67 min: Spurs aren’t doing much by way of getting back into this game at the moment. It’s all gone a little bit flat. “Pass on my thanks to Euan Lawson,” writes Adam Kent Ibáñez. “I’m 38, so hopefully my emissions are okay for a few years yet – at least until Spurs win a game.”
65 min: Koumas is nudged off the ball, 25 yards out, by Tosin. He wants a free kick in a dangerous position, but the referee deems his flop too theatrical. “To answer Craig Fawcett’s question: yes,” quips Andy (not that one) Flintoff. “More seriously, because I contribute to the cricket OBOs it made sense to state I wasn’t the former England cricketer, and it became a habit whenever I emailed in.”
63 min: Bergvall rolls a ball infield from the left for Marmoush, who prepares to shoot from the edge of the box, only to be denied by Kerkez’s perfectly timed sliding challenge. The ball poked away from the striker’s toe. That’s a goal-saving intervention by the young left-back.
62 min: … Szoboszlai and Gravenberch come on for McConnell and Nyoni. The young midfield pairing have been largely excellent tonight. Nothing comes of the corner.
61 min: Marmoush goes on a power-dribble down the inside-left channel, seeing off five challenges before rolling across to Kudus, who shoots low and hard. Mamardashvili gets down well to make another fine save. Araujo smacks the loose ball out for a corner, before which …
59 min: Kudus makes good down the right but his attempted cross is blocked by New Robertson Kerkez.
57 min: Spurs make a double change, replacing Udogie and Bentancur with Fernandes and … Andy Robertson, who gets one hell of an ovation on his return to Anfield. Robertson keeps his gameface on, and he’ll be determined to do a job for his new club, but inside he’ll be having some feelings.
56 min: Mac Allister has a chance to shoot from the edge of the D, but turns it down. It was on.
55 min: Spurs respond well, pushing Liverpool back up the pitch, Tosin unleashing a low drive that fizzes wide of the left-hand post. Mamardashvili had it covered.
GOAL! Liverpool 2-0 Tottenham Hotspur (Gakpo 54)
Ngumoha cuts in from the right and rolls across to Kerkez, who cushions the ball back to Mac Allister. No shot this time. Mac Allister finds Gakpo inside the box on the left. Gakpo takes a touch inside and lashes a shot across Dubravka and into the right-hand side of the net. No stopping that!
53 min: Spurs get their foot on the ball for the first time in the second half. Sterile domination. But when they finally turn it over …
51 min: Gakpo accidentally stands on Bentancur’s instep as the two battle for a loose ball. That’s a sore one, and it takes a moment for the Spurs midfielder to recover. But he’s up again soon enough.
49 min: Koumas and McConnell have done a good job of leading the Liverpool press so far this evening. Spurs don’t look comfortable passing out from the back. Andoni Iraola will be hoping Alexander Isak is on the bench taking reams of notes.
47 min: Given Gomez’s unfortunate injury record, hopefully his withdrawal is merely a matter of managing minutes. Those were his first 45 of the season. And he did take a whack on the head midway through, which won’t have helped.
Liverpool get the second half started. They’ve made one change, Jacquet coming on for Gomez. A reminder that if the game ends level after 90 minutes, there will be no extra time. It’ll be straight to penalties.
Half-time postbag. “At least you can’t accuse Roberto De Zerbi of parking the bus. No. It’s no use throwing players under a parked bus” – Justin Kavanagh
“What a week for Liverpool! Ian ‘Mac the Mouth’ McCulloch and Echo & The Bunnymen are releasing a new album, and Alexis ‘Mac the Foot’ Mac Allister is scoring goals for fun at Anfield” – Peter Oh
“Re: Andy (not that one) Flintoff, I recently saw correspondence from Andy Flintoff to the paper and thought, I bet it’s not that one. Is tonight’s Andy Flintoff not that one, or not that one or that one?” – Craig Fawcett
The doctor will see you now. “Thanks for your comment about colourblind supporters on 20 minutes,” begins Euan Lawson. “The Premier League have largely sorted appalling kit clashes out, and so I wonder if it’s a Carabao Cup thing. Yes, I can confirm, as a colourblind person, that the game is almost unwatchable. Or more unwatchable than normal with any game featuring Spurs. Red-green colourblindness affects one in 12 blokes – pretty much one in every men’s football team. It’s a nonsense that Spurs aren’t in white here.
“Also a message for Adam Kent Ibáñez – it might be worth double-checking that he’s not colourblind. A lot of men get through life without realising and it can have health consequences: spotting blood in various bodily emissions can be missed and we all know those kind of things needs checking. Awareness can help. (I’m a GP.)”
HALF TIME: Liverpool 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur
Mac Allister blazes the free kick over the bar, and that’s the end of an open and entertaining first half. The Argentinian scored a fine goal, both keepers have made one crucial stop, and Kudus has missed a sitter. It’s been fun.
45 min +3: … but now Bentancur is booked for nudging the in-flight Gakpo from behind, just to the right of the D. With Szoboszlai on the bench, Mac Allister looks in the mood to pull rank here. He prepares to take.
45 min +2: Senesi barges aggressively into McConnell, having arrived late for a 50-50. The referee, having just booked Frimpong and Marmoush for bugger all, decides a lecture is enough punishment this time.
45 min: There will be two additional minutes tacked onto the end of this first half.
43 min: Gomez goes long. Senesi heads back to Dubravka, who claims on the edge of his box, but only just in time, with Gakpo lurking. That was a risky ball back.
41 min: Now Marmoush goes into the book for clipping McConnell a little bit late. That was a free kick, nothing more. Marmoush as deflated as Frimpong. The referee getting a bit card-happy here.
40 min: Frimpong wins a battle with Tel down the Tottenham left … and is booked for nothing at all. Aurajo’s yellow card was as obvious as it gets; this one not so much, and Frimpong is understandably non-plussed.
39 min: McConnell and Koumas combine down the inside-right channel, the latter cutting back for Mac Allister, six yards out. Mac Allister can’t sort his feet, the ball clanking off his shin and wide right.
38 min: A Liverpool corner on the left leads to a second on the right. From that one, hit long, Koumas crosses low from the left. Had Gakpo taken a better touch, he’d have been spinning and shooting from eight yards. But there’s no better touch.
36 min: Araujo is booked for the clearest of pull-backs on Marmoush. Seconds before, McConnell had been clumsily bundled over in the box from behind by Senesi. No penalty. VAR might have taken a look at that, you know. But there’s no VAR.
34 min: Koumas nearly gets in ahead of Tosin down the left. Tosin turns the ball behind for a corner. A smart routine between Mac Allister and Kerkez leads to the former whipping into the middle. Ngumoha can’t win a header, then when the ball breaks to Nyoni, the young midfielder’s shot is blocked. There are definitely more goals in this.