Image Credit: This Is Anfield
By Lee Clow 11 January 2020 | Premier League
Roberto Firmino scored the only goal of the game as Liverpool overcame Tottenham to send them 16 points clear at the top of the Premier League table.
Liverpool’s centre forward skilfully turned in the box before smashing the ball into the back of the net past Paulo Gazzaniga in what proved to be the winner.
Going into the game, Spurs manager Jose Mourinho made a brave call by giving young defender, Japhet Tanganga, his first Premier League start, replacing the experienced Jan Vertonghen. This decision soon proved to be inspired as Tanagana denied Liverpool an early lead, first blocking Firmino’a shot and secondly getting a slight touch onto Alex Oxlade Chamberlain’s rebound which smashed the upright.
In the first half, Liverpool created a countless number of chances and they really should have taken the lead through Virgil Van Dijk. The Dutch centre back stayed forward and was picked out beautifully by Jordan Henderson, but Van Dijk could not divert the ball home, with Gazzaniga pulling off an excellent save.
After 37 minutes Tottenham’s resistance was finally broken when Firmino produced a world class piece of skill. The Brazilian was picked out in the box by Mohammed Salah before letting the ball run across his body away from Tangana to fire across the goal into the back of the net.
The start of the second half started the same as the first half as Liverpool regained control of the game and created more chances. Gazzaniga was required again as he got down well to deny Sadio Mane’s header from close range.
But as the game wore on and Liverpool tired, it was Spurs who were the more threatening of the two sides.
Georginio Wijnaldum almost cost his team when he was robbed off the ball by Giovani Lo Celso in a dangerous position, but he was let off the hook when Son Heung-Min fired over the bar following a lay off by Lucas Moura.
Spurs’ biggest chance to equalise came late in the game through Lo Celso who missed a sitter from close range. Serge Aurier found space down the right flank before delivering a beautiful ball into the box towards Lo Celso who somehow managed to place his shot wide of post five yards out.
Despite Spurs’ late pressure, Liverpool held onto the victory meaning they are now 38 games unbeaten in the Premier League. Liverpool’s three points also extends their lead at the top of the table by 16 points. For Spurs, it means an eight defeat of the season already in the league with chances of top 4 slimming following Chelsea’s victory.
Tottenham manager, Jose Mourinho spoke after the game about how pleased he was with his side despite the defeat: "(We were) very, very close. I think we have many reasons to be sad with the result, but I have only reasons to be happy with what the boys did.”
"I think we deserved more from this game. We intensified the pressure a bit more in the second half. We had lots of good chances to score a goal.”
"I'm proud of the boys, it was fantastic to compete against such a good team."
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp also spoke after the game, he said: "The result is the most important thing. There was one team who deserved to win and that was us. That the game was not decided after 50 or 60 minutes was our fault as well.”
"Of course, then it was hectic, very intense. It's difficult to come here. You can expect a little bit that they defend deep. They are really good at counter-attacking.”
"It's not that I think we can't do better, the opposite in fact. But if it was easy to win here many more teams would do it. There were a lot of good parts. We should have scored more goals, that's the truth."
What’s next?
Liverpool have another tough test in the Premier League next week as they host rivals Manchester United at Anfield. For Tottenham, they face Middlesbrough in an FA Cup third-round replay on Tuesday before travelling to Watford in the Premier League on Saturday.
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