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Dent breakaway bolts7/24/2023 In midfield it was Thiago’s show to run, with his foot wrapped around the ball when it needed to be chipped up at the back post or tickled through a tricky gap that opened briefly. Hard to dispute Liverpool’s passing dominance but faced with a Spurs team that won a lot in the air, it was telling that Klopp’s players chose the ball crossed into the box, as the clock ticked down, rather than try to play through their opposition. In those closing stages it was Spurs who went the closest on the breakaway, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg choosing to head the ball down to Kane from substitute Harry Winks’ cross, when the Dane had a decent sight of goal himself. “In the end I could see in the eyes of my players that they were disappointed,” Conte said, “because we had the chances to win the game.” His point being that all but a few find themselves as the underdogs from time to time and must adapt accordingly. That would allow them to find the space behind Liverpool and indeed they did, Harry Kane shaping the move that would lead to Son Heung-min's second half goal, his 20th of the Premier League and just two behind the leader, Salah.Ĭonte reflected on the strangeness of the league, the big win for Brighton over Manchester United, the defeat to Brentford for Southampton – who themselves beat Spurs in February. This time he admitted to demanding a lot of his players in defence asking them “to be brave” in taking the ball off Hugo Lloris. It will be a different kind of game for Conte on Thursday, at home with the expectation that his team will have to do more of the attacking against an old rival. “I don’t like that kind of football … I can’t coach it.” “It’s the wrong question for me,” he said when invited to critique it. “First and foremost,” he said, “we should stop behaving like it’s a funeral.” He did his best to try to stop himself from saying how much he hated the kind of football that Spurs had played, a line so deep they might have been troubling the building site behind the Anfield Road end, but could not do so. Later Klopp would appeal to the optimism of his players and indeed the club’s fans that this did not have to be the end. These are joyful days for them watching what some say is the club’s greatest team pursue the final three of a quadruple of trophies, but they are also tense days. There was always someone in the way of the great thrusts that were built up by Liverpool, and their midfield controller Thiago Alcantara, and gradually Anfield came to be gripped with the anxiety that it might never come. Everything, apart from that equaliser from Luis Diaz in the 74th minute, was headed out, blocked, hacked away. What emerged was a game in which Klopp’s players threw everything at Spurs, and Spurs threw everything back. He has closed down the vulnerabilities and appealed to the competitor in all his players. Conte has tightened the bolts on this Spurs squad. They had won 12 straight games at home going back to October before this evening and in all the categories that matter – passing, possession, shots on goal – they were far ahead of Spurs, but there was always something to stop them. There are many ways to lose a place in a title race although this was not how Liverpool will have imagined it slipping away, if indeed that is to be their destiny, against a Tottenham Hotspur side rekindled by Antonio Conte to defy the old flaws that have blighted Spurs for years.Īnd what pressure it was, exerted over 96 minutes of striving by Jurgen Klopp’s players to bend the game to their will in the usual traditions. Jurgen Klopp tells Liverpool players and fans not to treat draw 'like it’s a funeral'.Draw sends Jurgen Klopp's side top of the table but Man City can go three points clear with win over Newcastle on Sunday.Great defensive display from Tottenham blunts hosts' attack as visitors put bodies on the line.Diaz strike earns Liverpool a point having gone behind to Son goal.
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