Anfield witnessed a high-tempo electrifying game on Saturday as Liverpool played host to Tottenham Hotspurs in a game that could possibly decide the fate of both clubs for this season. The match ended 1-1 and both teams had to settle for one point. There were a lot of talking points in the game as both sides displayed a brilliant performance. Coutinho’s effort was matched equally by Harry Kane who scored from a very tight angle on the turn. Jurgen Klopp hugged and congratulated the striker on the pitch as if he was his very own player. This was the competitive spirit of the game and the fans certainly witnessed quality football for the entire 90 minutes. However, both the sides would have wanted all three points as a draw would not do good for either of them.
Why Liverpool deserved to win
Both the teams were giving each other a neck-to-neck competition in terms of possession and the total number of attempts. Tottenham did have a fair share of possession after Kane’s goal. In terms of passing accuracy Spurs slightly edged over Liverpool and their passes were sticking better in the middle of the park. However, both sides clearly had troubles in holding the ball as there were a lot of instances when players made very loose passes which were easily intercepted by the other team.
Liverpool had more seven shots on goal as compared to Tottenham’s five and also the Reds were leading in the number of set-pieces. Also, in this game, the long passes were a bit effective and Liverpool were pretty successful with their long passes. In the first half, there were a couple of defensive glitches in the Tottenham backline giving a one on one chance to Sturridge and another one to Lallana on separate occasions. If Liverpool could have managed to hit the back of the net in the first half, the end scoreline could have been different. Also, after the scores were even, Coutinho had one brilliant chance inside the box which just went wide. Liverpool were clearly posing a lot of threat to their opposition and were in a better position until the moment of brilliance from Harry Kane.
Positive words from the manager
These were the words of the manager in his post-match conference.
“We’ve really developed in the last few months. That’s how it is. Our game has changed. We have a lot of possession. We spend a lot of time in dangerous zones on the pitch. We create chances. We don’t score enough goals and we concede too many goals, that’s the truth. But we’ve become more and more stable.”
