Second-half pressure goes unrewarded against Reds - on-the-whistle report

A rousing second-half display just fell short as Liverpool left Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with all three points on Sunday afternoon.

A first-half brace from Mohamed Salah put the visitors in control leaving us with it all to do in the second half and, although we pulled one back through Harry Kane and had Liverpool on the ropes in the closing stages, we just couldn’t find that elusive equaliser.

The hosts were quickly out of the blocks, Darwin Nunez testing Hugo Lloris with a fierce volley on two minutes and then curling just wide shortly afterwards, before setting up the opening goal. With 11 minutes on the clock, Andy Robertson picked out Nunez in the area and he found Salah who fired into the bottom corner.

We responded well and four minutes later, a lovely move ended with Kane crossing for Ivan Perisic, whose header hit goalkeeper Alisson and struck the post while we quickly won the ball back again, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s shot saved low down by the Liverpool keeper. Penalty appeals were waved away after Trent Alexander-Arnold shoved Ryan Sessegnon in the back in the area but, five minutes before the break Liverpool doubled their lead. Alisson pumped a long ball forwards, Eric Dier’s attempted header back to his goalkeeper hit his shoulder allowing Salah to race onto the ball and dink it over Lloris.

As has been the way recently, we were quickly into our stride after the break and, after Alisson made a smart save to keep out Dier’s glancing header, we hit the woodwork again, Perisic smacking against the crossbar from eight yards out. But we were back in the game on 70 minutes, substitute Dejan Kulusevski making an immediate impact two minutes after his return from injury, sliding the ball in behind for Kane to drill low past Alisson. And we had chances to level, Clement Lenglet heading over from a corner before Alisson kept out Rodrigo Bentancur’s header with seven minutes remaining. It was complete one-way traffic for the final stages as we pushed Liverpool back but just couldn’t fashion that one opportunity to draw level.

Reaction on SPURSPLAY

Match data

Goals: Spurs – Kane 70; Liverpool – Salah 11, 40.

Referee: Andrew Madley.

Venue: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Weather: Light rain, moderate breeze, 11 degrees.

Attendance: 62,008.