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66 min Jones, on the right, hammers a really dangerous first-time cross that goes through Dragusin’s legs and reaches Diaz beyond the far post. He is eventually crowded out.
64 min Gray waves a beautiful outside-of-the-foot pass to release Kulusevski on the right. His low cross is cut out by Van Dijk, immaculately positioned at the near post, but it’s worth mentioning because of that pass from Gray. He is remarkably talented for an 18-year-old, and in the long run this difficult spell will surely be good for him.
63 min “Poorly made excuses aside, I’m always impressed how precisely pro athletes know their equipment,” writes Zach Neeley. “Years ago baseball pitchers complained the balls had been changed for the playoffs. League denied any change. They had a pitcher on the broadcast one night and dumped some balls from the playoffs and some from the regular season into a sack, he reached in and separated the two types blind.”
Oh that’s tremendous. I’d imagine Jimmy Anderson could do the same with cricket balls. And the late, utterly great Neil Kulkrani with crisps. Just texture, not taste.
62 min A decent header from Nunez, roughly 12 yards out, is straight at Kinsky. Liverpool are looking dangerous again.
61 min Van Dijk plants his studs into the back of Solanke’s leg as he tries to shield the ball. I doubt it was deliberate but it was high and didn’t look great. I’m surprised the commentators didn’t dwell on it. I suspect it looked far worse in slow motion and that there wasn’t much force. Either that or I have an unconscious bias against Liverpool that remains despite decades of therapy.
60 min: Triple substitution for Liverpool This feels like a pre-planned change, with the management of minutes in mind. Luis Diaz, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Darwin Nunez come on for Diogo Jota, Conor Bradley and Cody Gakpo.
59 min A lovely effort from Salah, who spots Kinsky off his line and goes for goal from very wide on the right. Kinsky backpedals smartly, pats the ball down from under the crossbar and grabs it when it bounces up. He dealt with it well but his heart would have been a drum-and-bass track for a few seconds.
56 min: What a chance for Spurs! Bergvall, a Jack Russell with lemon hair, presses Alisson not once but twice, winning the ball superbly the second time. It runs to Porro, whose shot from the edge of the area is crucially blocked by Van Dijk. Bergvall collects the loose ball and gives back to Porro, who lifts it over Alisson and wide of the far post!
That was a glorious chance for Porro. And I’m pretty sure Van Dijk’s block saved a goal because Alisson was out of the game at that stage.
53 min A half-decent Spurs move ends with Spence’s cross zipping through to Alisson. One thing worth nothing is how quiet Son Heung-min has been. Whether that’s his form, Conor Bradley or both I don’t know, but it’s worth mentioning in the context of the ongoing Trent Wars.
51 min Salah’s inswinging cross is just too high for Gakpo, who timed his run well and was unmarked at the far post. That was better from Liverpool.
50 min “Mikel Arteta has a point about the ball,” writes Peter Oh. “It’s not easy, making the round thing fit in a rectangular hole.”
49 min Liverpool haven’t quite picked up where they left off before half-time. In fact, they haven’t done so at all. Yet.
47 min “Spurs seem to be set up slightly differently from before, something like a 3-2–2-3, with five players principally tasked with defending, and five with attacking,” writes Kári Tulinius. “Ange may have reinvented the W M formation. Everything new is old again.”
Don’t they play that way anyway in certain phases? Can you tell I have no idea what I’m talking about?
46 min Liverpool begin the second half. No further substitutions.
Bentancur ‘conscious and talking’
Some very good news from Sky Sports: Rodrigo Bentancur is conscious and talking. He is on his way to hospital for further tests.
Sky Sports are reporting that Rodrigo Bentancur is still in the dressing-room with the doctors who helped stretcher him off the field. There was no other update on his condition.
Anyone fancy joining my new virtual cinema club? Our first 365 movies are brilliant.
“I can’t be the only person who’s emailed you to wittily suggest that Liverpool’s problems must be caused by the ball,” writes Alan Terlep. “Seriously, I’d love to hear Slot say post- game, ‘we didn’t control the ball. We need to do better, there’s no excuse for sloppiness.’”
Talking of which, here’s some half-time reading.
Half time: Tottenham 0-0 Liverpool
Sequels, eh. That was a half of few chances, one that never really got going after a worrying early injury to Rodrigo Bentancur. He collapsed on the turf after stooping to meet a corner, with nobody else near him, and was eventually stretchered off after a nine-minute delay.
Alisson made the best save of the half, denying Radu Dragusin from the same corner kick. Liverpool, who were sloppy for much of the first half, eventually found their usual rhythm and intensity in a manner that bodes ill for Spurs.
45+11 min Gakpo plays a quick square pass to Jota, whose snapshot from 12 yards is blocked, I think by Bergvall.
45+10 min Liverpool won’t want half-time because a goal is coming, or would be if the referee wasn’t about to blow his whistle.
45+9 min Son’s long cross from the left is headed straight at Alisson by Bergvall, 15 yards out. Even Mick Harford would have struggled to generate the necessary power on that header.
45+7 min Liverpool have come to life at the end of the first half. Mac Allister shapes a pass out to Gakpo, who cuts inside in familiar style before curling over the bar from the edge of the area. He’s looked so good this past month or so.
45+6 min “This is a dull match,” writes our bleedin’ obvious correspondent Richard Slassor. “I’m missing The Repair Shop for this?”
45+4 min Jota poked the ball through to Gakpo, who ran from inside his own half to within 25 yards of goal before crashed a low shot that moved awkwardly and was saved at the second attempt by Kinsky. It threatened to slither under him but he had plenty of time to grab the loose ball.
No second yellow card for Bissouma, which on reflection is fair enough. But he took a risk.
45+4 min Bergvall curls a good pass out to Johnson, whose shot from the edge of the area is blocked at source. Jota is then flattened by Bissouma, who might have a problem when the ball goes dead.
45+3 min Liverpool are having their best spell of the half, which admittedly isn’t saying that much. But there has been a greater snap to their passing. Gakpo charges past Porro near the byline and pokes a cross back towards Salah, 15 yards from goal. Mac Allister gets in his way for a second and Salah shoots high over the bar with his right foot. Tough chance anyway.
45+1 min “Re: the sloppiness on display this far, the misplaced passes and dodge control,” begins Neil Hattersley, “this game has had a bit of a feel of the Sunday leagues matches I used to play on fields with waterlogged flanks and a mixture of sun baked mud and sand dune in the middle. No one could predict how the ball would bounce or run… glory days.”
It’s funny you say that because a few of the players look hungover as well. (Legal disclaimer: they’re not actually hungover, or drunk, or impaired in anything other than their passing.)
45 min There will be 11 minutes of added time, the majority for the injury to Rodrigo Bentancur.
43 min Jota sparks a Liverpool break with a stylish run in the Spurs half. Salah and Gakpo are also involved before Tsimikas’s low cross towards Jones is cleared well by the sliding Bergvall. Good defending.
42 min Endo’s crossfield pass goes straight out of play. The first half in miniature.
39 min Kulusevski, on the left touchline, curves an imaginative pass around the defence towards Son. The distances are a bit too tight, even for Kulusevski, and Alisson beats Son to the ball.
38 min Liverpool’s first-half performance in the league game on this ground was arguably their best of the season. They’ve been nowhere near that standard so far, with a strange sloppiness and lack of precision in attack.
37 min Jota turns dangerously 25 yards from goal but Bissouma lunges to make an important tackle. Quite a brave one too because had he got it wrong he might have received a second yellow card.
35 min It’s been a stop-start first half, literally and figuratively. Alisson’s excellent early save from Dragusin was the closest we’ve come to a goal.
33 min: Chance for Liverpool. Tsimikas’s curling free-kick is met by Mac Allister, 10 yards out, but he has to jump backwards to meet it and can only head straight at Kinsky. Not an easy chance.
32 min Jota, such a clever, slippery player, escapes Bissouma 30 yards from goal and is bundled over. A clear yellow card.
30 min: Liverpool substitution Endo replaces Quanash, who is able to walk off the field. It might be a calf injury.
29 min Wataru Endo, usually a holding midfield player, is getting ready to replace Quansah. Liverpool do have Ibrahima Konate on the bench but he has only just returned from injury so they don’t want to risk him with effectively 75 minutes of the game remaining.
28 min Jarell Quansah is down and needs treatment. Liverpool are already short of centre-halves so they could do without losing Quansah.
27 min Spurs are ahead all on the underlying numbers, though there isn’t much in it. It’s an improvement on the league game in December, though; at this stage of that match they were lucky to be only 1-0 down.
25 min We’ll let you know as soon as there is any official word on Rodrigo Bentancur’s injury.
23 min Spurs have been the better team in the first 23 minutes (well, 14 because of the injury). But Salah gives them a warning with a first-time effort from 20 yards that goes not far wide. He cut inside from the right, lent the ball to Gakpo and then whipped a shot back across goal. Kinsky had it covered.
21 min Spurs win the ball on the halfway line and break at pace. Eventually Son beats Bradley with a stepover and drives a low cross that is slightly behind Solanke, six yards out at the near post. He tries to improvise but clips the ball off his right leg and behind for a goalkick.