Tottenham Hotspur have one foot in the Carabao Cup final after Wednesday night’s narrow 1-0 win over Liverpool in the first leg of the semi-finals in North London.
Tottenham were certainly not favourites. – Recently, the club has lost a lot of momentum and is now effectively outside the race for the top four in the Premier League with 24 points from 20 games.
An 86th-minute strike from teenage midfielder Lucas Bergvall gives Ange Postecoglou’s side an aggregate lead to defend on in the reverse fixture at Anfield next month.
An already exhausted Spurs suffered another blow early on when Rodrigo Bentancur suffered a nasty fall when he bent over to head the ball for a corner. Oxygen was given to the Uruguayan on the pitch, before he was carried off and later confirmed to be conscious and able to speak.
Liverpool also lost a player in the first half due to injury, and Jarell Quansah appeared to pull up with a muscle problem and leave the pitch after 30 minutes.
Both sides had chances to take the lead at different points, with Pedro Porro failing to hit the target at one end after mistakes from Liverpool, and Trent Alexander-Arnold seeing an effort removed from the line in the other. Dominic Solanke even had the ball in the net, but VAR intervened for offside.
Solanke was again involved when Bergvall scored, fought to win the ball from Ibrahima Konate and was on target for his young teammate. Spurs goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky also had a night to remember on his debut, scoring a brilliant stoppage time to deny Luis Diaz an equaliser.
