Liverpool 1- 1 Tottenham Hotspur: Spurs drop points in race for Top-4

With the stakes at its highest, Tottenham Hotspur almost ruined Liverpool’s title hopes at Anfield. Looking to win its first game in over 11 years at the ground, Spurs played their style.

Sitting back and waiting to pounce on counterattacks all night long, Spurs fought through the Liverpool press to get those chances.

In the first half, the game felt like it was taking forever to see the game reach the halfway point. Each team created one great chance with Virgil Van Djik having his header hit the crossbar, and Pierre-Emile Højbjerg seeing his shot hit the left post before rolling out of play.

Every Spurs fan knew that Liverpool would come out of the halftime break pressing high and looking to capitalize on a mistake. Spurs played from the back for the first five minutes but never controlled possession enough to look for runs from the front three.

It was in the 58th minute, the first goal came along. After Hugo Lloris controlled the ball, he booted the goal kick to an out of positioned Emerson Royal. Royal swung the ball from the left of the pitch to Harry Kane 35-yards out of the box. Kane controlled the ball with an amazing first touchand dribbled his way to the 18-yard box. Anticipating a shot on his left, Kane found Ryan Sessegnon in the box. Instead of shooting, Sessegnon squared a ball to Son Heung-Min in the middle of the box for an easy tap-in.

All hope of a grueling three points went out the window in the 74th minute.

Liverpool’s Luis Diaz took a shot and with Lloris positioned perfectly, Rodrigo Bentancur put his studs up and the ball changed directions to the left corner of the goal.

With the game tied at one, Spurs had one final chance in the final minute of extra time when Højbjerg decided to square a header to Kane on target.

Being a frustrating way to only grab a point, all we know is Tottenham has to be fully focused for the North London Derby on Thursday.

Notes:

• The back five of Tottenham played spectacularly. Liverpool’s front three are no joke and are widely considered to be top in the world. Antonio Conte shaped his defense very well to handle Liverpool. Ben Davies launched himself on what seemed to be a surefire Salah goal. Eric Dier marked the middle very well. Christian Romero came into the game and stood his own, even attempting an over the head shot.
• The wing-backs looked to be play one of its best games since Conte took over. Royal and Sessegnon on the defensive side put in marvelous tackles, stopping Dias and Salah for as long as possible. The final balls from both are still not up to par of what we would like to see, but it’s something.
• The midfield duo of Højbjerg and Bentancur marked Liverpool very well all night long. The two tracked back defensively and as infuriating as it is that the game is a draw, without those two Liverpool could have had more than one goal.
• Spurs front three created opportunities, channeling down the flanks of Liverpool’s defense as Alexander-Arnold and Robertson made runs high up the pitch. We could see Kane miss chances to find Son one-on-one because of crucial plays by Van Djik and Konate.
• The Spurs bench is not great and we all know that. Davinson Sanchez came in with Davies and Sessegnon both having yellows, and one needing to be subbed off. A questionable decision, Harry Winks came in for Dejan Kulusevski, and Steven Bergwijn came in for the knackered Son for the final five minutes of extra time.

We are all Leeds United fans tomorrow, with Jesse Marsch at the helm. The full focus though will be on Thursday’s NLD matchup, which will make or break the 2021/22 campaign for Tottenham.