LONDON: Lucas Bergvall scored his first goal for Tottenham Hotspur to give his side a surprise 1-0 victory over holders Liverpool in the first leg of their League Cup semi-final on Wednesday.
The 18-year-old Swede rifled a superb finish past Liverpool keeper Alisson in the 86th minute to reward the injury-hit hosts who shortly before had seen a Dominic Solanke goal ruled out.
Liverpool, who beat Chelsea to win the competition for a record 10th time last season, were nowhere near their best as their 24-match unbeaten run in all competitions came to an end.
They did have a legitimate cause for complaint though as Bergvall, who had already been booked, was fortunate to escape a second yellow card for a foul on Kostas Tsimikas moments before he netted the winning goal.
But fuming Slot said: “The decision made had a lot of impact on the result tonight.
“The fourth official told me why he thought it wasn’t a second yellow and he heard that probably from the referee.
“What we can say about it is that he said he didn’t stop the counter-attack, every manager would say they prefer the second yellow than a free-kick.
“Spurs weren’t happy with a few decisions that happened (against Newcastle) on Sunday. Maybe today a decision went in favour of them, which is of course very unlucky for us.”
Inevitably, Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou saw the incident differently.
Asked if Bergvall was lucky to avoid a red card, Postecoglou said: “Great question, no he wasn’t.
“It’s happened to us consistently, you look at our games, and we’ve asked the officials and they’ve said if you play advantage, as long as it’s not a cynical tackle, then yellow card doesn’t get shown. Now to me, that was pretty clear.”
While Slot’s side suffered only their second loss of the season they will still feel confident of turning around the tie in the second leg at Anfield next month.
Tottenham suffered a setback when midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur was taken off on a stretcher after a worrying fall early on, the omens looked poor for the hosts who gave a debut to new keeper Antonin Kinsky.
But it was sweet revenge for the Spurs, who lost to Liverpool 6-3 in Premier League, as Bergvall showed why he is rated so highly — becoming the team’s youngest scorer in the League Cup since Gareth Bale in 2007.
Postecoglou claimed earlier this season that he always wins a trophy in his second season at a club but recent results have heaped pressure on the Australian.
The fans were singing his name at the end though as a first trophy since the 2008 League Cup moved a little closer, even if there is still much work to be done.
Tottenham had the better chances in the first half with Radu Dragusin having an early effort saved by Alisson and Solanke bundling a Son Heung-min cross wide either side of the lengthy stoppage for Bentancur’s injury.
Mohamed Salah, unusually quiet, fired one effort wide for Liverpool while Kinsky had a moment of alarm when a shot by Cody Gakpo almost squirmed under his body.
Alisson almost gifted Tottenham the lead shortly after halftime, dallying on the ball and being dispossessed by Bergvall who prodded the ball back to Pedro Porro whose first shot was blocked by Virgil van Dijk while his follow-up attempt was clipped wide of a gaping goal, much to the frustration of Postecoglou who fell to his knees in the technical area.
Liverpool almost took the lead when Trent Alexander-Arnold, on as a substitute, had a shot cleared off the line by Dragusin.
Tottenham dug deep though and Bergvall sent the home fans into raptures with a clinical finish after great work by Solanke.
Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2025
