Full-time: Liverpool 2-1 Spurs
Sturridge was mostly brilliant and would have had more goals if not for a couple of moments of shoddiness, but in the end his two goals were enough to give Liverpool a deserved victory. Into the quarter-finals they march.
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90+3 min: Winks strides forward from midfield. Lamela, chariging in from the left, roars for a pass. There are other options, too, but none of them easy. So Winks decides the best option is to have a pop himself, but his left-footer never looked like hitting the target.
90+2 min: Wimmer booked for shoving Ings after the striker flipped the ball away.
90+1 min: There’ll be at least three more minutes, right after Winks is booked for tripping Ings on half-way.
90 min: Liverpool take a corner short to Moreno. He carries the ball towards the box, then nudges it to Clyne on the outside. The right-back’s rasping low shot fizzes wide.
Liverpool substitution: Can on, Grujic off.
88 min: Ings sprints on to a ball over the top ... is the fairytale return about to be realised? He lashes a ferocious shot on the bounce at goal - but Vorm beats it away well!
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86 min: What a chance for Spurs! Ejaria gave the ball away in midfield and suddenly Spurs had a great counter-attacking opportunity. A long pass from the left by Lamela found Harrison on his own just inside the Liverpool box. One sure touch and a finish and the youngster will announce his arrival in unforgettable fashion. But his chest-control is fractionally too heavy and Mignolet rushes out to crush his dream.
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84 min: Grujic booked as the tension climbs higher.
Tottenham substitution: Harrison on, Nkoudou off. The former is a young striker, the latter was a disappointment.
83 min: Liverpool have an amazing ability to turn even the most humdrum strolls into nerve-wracking ordeals...
82 min: Wanyama beats Lucas brilliantly at the edge of the box and then smashes a low shot towards the far corner. Mignolet dives and holds, which was just as well because Janssen was ready and waiting for spillage.
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80 min: Liverpool counter-attack. Sturridge tries to recreate the goal he scored against Sevilla in the Europa League final, but it takes a nick off a defender ... and bounces out off the crossbar!
78 min: A snappy passing move takes Tottenham all the way into the Liverpool box, whereupon Lamela went down again, this time under a tackle by Moreno. The Spaniard caught his foot after winning the ball, and then leaned out an arm to prevent Lamela from running around to collect the ball. But the ref decides not to award a penalty this time.
GOAL! Liverpool 2-1 Spurs (Janssen pen 75)
The Dutchman smashes it into the net as Mignolet goes the wrong way.
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PENALTY TO SPURS!
Lamela goes down after Lucas felt for the ball from behind him, waving a leg but making little or not contact. Never a foul, but a great chance for Spurs to get back into the game.
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73 min: Another foul on Ejaria, this time by Wanyama. Wijnaldum gets power and dip on his freekick but it’s too close to Vorm to be truly dangerous. The keeper punches clear with both fists, because he just doesn’t trust himself to catch, apparently.
72 min: Liverpool are rampant now, Spurs crawling. Sturridge ghosts down the right and plays the ball through to Grujic, whose shot is blocked by the last defender.
71 min: Sturridge leans back and curls the freekick a copule of yards over the bar.
70 min: Freekick to Liverpool as Wimmer takes out the twinkle-toed Ejaria. Sturridge fancies a hat-trick and is lining up as shot from 20 yards.
Liverpool substitutions: Ings and Clyne on, Origi and Alexander-Arnold off. Ings gets a heartening reception on his first appearance back from injury in over a year. Alexander-Arnold gets a fond farewell, plus a big hug from Klopp. We’ll be seeing the youngster again, that’s for sure.
Tottenham substitution: Wanyama on, Dier off.
GOAL! Liverpool 2-0 Spurs (Sturridge 64)
No mistake this time! Origin collects the ball on half way, spun and passed to Wijanldum, who slotted it between Spurs’ last two defenders, inviting Sturridge to run on to it, which he did. With a little feint the striker tried to put Vorm down but the keeper didn’t buy it, so Sturridge slotted the ball between his legs and into the net!
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63 min: Stewart continues to play well, buzzing around the pitch with moxy and passing with quality.
Tottenham substitution: Lamela on, Carroll off.
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59 min: Things are really livening up now, thanks to Liverpool. Origi blasts a missile goalward from 25 yards, forcing Vorm to fly across goal and tip it over. No showing off this time, that was the only way t he keeper could have kept the shot out.
55 min: Wijnaldum jinks his way into the box and smacks a low, hard pass to Sturridge near the penalty spot. A sumptuous touch from the striker takes him past Carter-Vickers, who reaches backwards to impede Sturridge slightly and enable Vorm to rush off the line to get to the ball first. Sturridge has one goal, has shown plenty of foxy touches, has bungled two easy chances and was thwarted there by skullduggery. What an enraging marvel he can be.
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53 min: Oh Sturridge! Lucas played a nice ball into the right channel. Origi races on to it and whips a perfect pass across the face of goal: all Sturridge has to do is sidefoot it into the net from six yards ... but he takes his eye off it and hits the ball with the wrong part of his foot, sending it backwards, for goodness sake.
51 min: Janssen receives the ball into the box from a throw-in. He uses his strength to hold off Lucas and then kicks the ball over his head to Tripper, who is about 10 yards outside the box, on the far side. He tries to bash a dipping half-volley over Mignolet and into the net but hits it a touch too hard so it flies over the bar.
49 min: It’s all so scrappy and dull.
46 min: Dier booked for taking down Wijnaldum from behind. Deserved. The booking, I mean.
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46 min: The teams are back out. Neither has made any change. Let’s hope for an improvement, all the same.
A propos of oh nothing, why not have a look at this rousing clip from a superb film about refugees.
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Half-time: Liverpool 1-0 Spurs
It has been a B match, pretty much. High energy and lots of hints of quality but nothing really sustained from either side. Spurs have had tidy patches of possession but are dreadfully blunt. Their best chance of a goal looks like being if they win the ball while Liverpool are doing embroidery around their own box. The hosts are sharper up front and look more the more likely scorers.
45 min: There will be at least two more minutes before tea is served.
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43 min: Superb tackling back by Moreno, denying Onomah after Stewart has misplaced a pass in midfield.
42 min: Grujic switches play with a splendid ball to Moreno, who jiggles a little and then flashes a dangerous cross towards the six-yard box. Carter-Vickers sticks out a leg to divert it behind for a corner.
39 min: Stewart steps in to put an end to a tippy-tappy Tottenham move in midfield. He helps the ball on to Sturridge, who draws some defenders and then slides a pass through to Grujic, who had provided an overlap on the right. He drives a low shot wide of the far post.
37 min: Ridiculous corner by Moreno, a pea-roller would not have reached the goal even if had not been intercepted by the first defender.
36 min: A witless tackle by Carroll on Stewart gives Liverpool a freekick that they greatly welcome, as they had got themselves into awful bother by overplaying at the back.
33 min: Danger from Tottenham! First a Trippier cross was deflected to the left-hand side of the box. Janssen had peeled away from his markers and was well placed to receive it. Then he fired off a strong low shot that Mignolet only parried. Tripper stood up another cross from the right and Onomah arrived to bash it towards goal from a tight angle, but Kavlan blocked.
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31 min: Spurs continue to string passes together without really getting anywhere.
28 min: A game that had already lapsed into a lull now has an enforced break in play because Carter-Vickers and Grujic clashed heads as they jumped for the ball. Both seem OK, happily.
26 min: Alexander-Arnold dives into a late tackle on Davies and cleans the defender out. Over-enthusiastic, to be sure, and an inescapable yellow card.
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24 min: Spurs are starting to come on strong, or at least keep hold of the ball for a bit. There’s little sigh of them creating any scoring opportunities from open play so far, but they’ve shut the crowd up. The atmosphere sounds very dreary.
21 min: Trippier swings a decent freekick towards the back post. Mignolet completely loses the flight of it - aye, some familiar Liverpool failings are re-emerging. Fortunately for the hosts, Janssen heads over. Another familiar failings, you might say, though the angle meant it was not a simple chance.
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18 min: Oooh! Origi leaves Wimmer chasing dust as he sprints own the right and into the box. He then rather greedily tries to beat three players and shoots ... but he quickly realises the folly of that so instead rolls the ball over to Sturridge, who is in splendid isolation 13 yards out! But it’s a diabolical finish by the striker, a feeble waft into Vorm’s arms. Liverpool should be two up and Sturridhe should be on his way to making a powerful point. Instead he frustrated.
16 min: Spurs try to push Liverpool back for a bit. THen Dier sweeps the ball wide to Trippier, who has a couple of team-mates to aim at in the box. But his cross sails high over them both.
14 min: “Am I right in saying Lucas is Barcelona’s Mascherano in this Liverpool lineup?” wonders Brendan Large. “Am I also right in assuming that’s a bit of a stretch?” He’s not as good as Mascherano if that’s what you mean, but he does a fair job there despite his lack of pace and, indeed, he has just outjumped Janssen to head the ball clear.
12 min: Sturridge is the mood! He latched on to the ball on the left, loped towards the corner of the box and then curled a fine effort towards goal. Vorm could probably have held it but elected fo the extravagant push over the bar. That kidology would have cost him if Liverpool did anything with the corner. But they didn’t.
GOAL! Liverpool 1-0 Spurs (Sturridge 9)
Nkoudou slipped about 30 yards from his own goal, allowing Grujic to nick the ball. The young Serb’s shot was deflected by Wimmer, and Sturridge reacted sharply to poke it above the diving Vorm from close range.
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7 min: Moreno sidesteps the charging Trippier in the manner of a matador eluding a bull. But Onomah then barges him to the ground. Freekick on halfway to Liverpool, who’ve made the slightly better start in a frenetic, slightly scruffy game.
6 min: Nkoudou collects a pass as he hugs the left touchline, then shrugs off Alexander-Arnold and hurtles forward. But Lucas steps in to put an end to his conniving.
4 min: Alexander-Arnold gives an early indication of what all the excitement around him has been about, as he shows speed and enterprise as he carries the ball 30 yards forward to the edge of the Spurs box. His run is halted there but the ball breaks to Stewart, who has a lash at goal. It flies over the bar but Klopp applauds heartily on the sideline, visibly delighted with the derring-do of his young thrusters.
2 min: Janssen pesters Lucas into conceding corner. Spurs take it short and win another one. It’s curled towards the back post. But Mignolet intervenes and holds it at the first attempt. In your face, Karius!
1 min: Tottenham get the game going in the traditional manner. Within 11 seconds Liverpool have a freekick for offside.
“Are Spurs wearing that horrible away kit?” asks Nelson Franks. No, they’re in their white shirts with the navy blue shoulder flap. Like sailors. Liverpool are all in red, which is obviously some kind of Baywatch tribute.
Phone cameras ready? The teams are on the way out ...
Judging by that #lfc lineup, Klopp thinks the league title is on. Having seen everyone else, he's probably right
— Paul Little (@little_football) October 25, 2016
Mauricio Pochettino on Vincent Janssen’s inclusion: “It’s always important for strikers to score. Their job is to score goals and when a striker doesn’t score its always difficult. But he’s very young and a very good guy who works hard in training. It’s just about trying to improve every day. We’re not concerned, it’s only a matter of time before he starts to score because he has a great quality.”
Jürgen Klopp has just been on TV explaining that illness and knocks influenced his team selection. But he said exactly the right thing about the youngsters to whom he has given starts: “If they can’t perform tonight, it’s my responsibility not theirs, so they can feel free and play football with joy in their eyes.”
Preamble
Hello and welcome to an interesting and potential entertaining fourth-round League Cup bout. This is the only trophy that Liverpool and Tottenham have won for nearly a decade and they’d quite like to win it again even if their team selections confirm that their priorities lie elsewhere, especially Liverpool even though they, unlike Spurs, do not have European escapades on top of domestic action this season. Still, both clubs’ B teams have plenty of good players who’ll be eager to press their claims for more regular inclusion in the first-teams (or a transfer in January). So this tournament has an important role to play in keeping squad harmony intact at both clubs, as well as in bringing them closer to honours. With Leicester, Everton, Stoke and Accrington Stanley already eliminated, and either Manchester City or Manchester United to be frogmarched out tomorrow, the path to the final is starting to clear. For Liverpool a win here would open up the possibility of the club increasing their record number of League Cup hauls, while for Spurs victory would fuel dreams of a return to the glory, glory days of Juande Ramos.
Teams
Look! Nkoudou makes his first start for Tottenham since his move from Marseille and wouldn’t it be handy if emerged as a source of goals, since Spurs clearly need more of them? Speaking of which, Janssen has been given yet another banjo as he continues his search for a barn door. And look, the lesser-spotted Wimmer is making an appearance! As for Liverpool, it’ll be interesting to see what sort of form Sturridge can muster, and whether Moreno has developed any kind of spatial awareness while meditating on being replaced at left-back by James Milner. It would have been nice to see a start by Ings. Grujic is a talent that needs to be seen more often so watching him could be a nice experience, and the same could be said of Ovie Ejaria, an 18-year-old midfielder who was lured to Liverpool two years ago from Arsenal, whom he joined before even reaching his teens. And then there’s Trent Alexander-Arnold, another 18-year-old and about whom Steven Gerrard once said: “He has a terrific chance of making it as a top professional. He’s quite leggy but he’s got a lovely frame and seems to have all the attributes you need. He has the right attitude and comes from West Derby, home to Melwood. So Trent is another Scouser and apparently, just as I tried to be John Barnes and Steve McMahon, he grew up pretending to be me while playing in the Merseyside parks. He can play as a No6, a holding midfielder, but he’s versatile and I’ve seen him fill various positions.” Tonight it looks like he’ll be at right-back. Look!
Liverpool: Mignolet, Alexander-Arnold, Lucas, Klavan, Moreno; Stewart, Wijnaldum, Grujic, Ejaria; Origi, Sturridge
Subs: Karius, Clyne, Lovren, Can, Lallana, Mane, Ings
Spurs: Vorm; Trippier, Carter-Vickers, Wimmer, Davies; Dier, Winks; Onomah, Carroll, Nkoudou; Janssen.
Subs: Lopez, Walkes, Vertonghen, Amos, Lamela, Wanyama, Harrison.
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