Straight
Virgil van Dijk against Bergwijn, in the duel between Liverpool and Tottenham. Jon Super (AP)
In a championship in which the winner has to reach around 30 victories, any stumble of an applicant becomes a difficult blur to correct.
More at this point.
Liverpool resumed domestic duties after completing their qualification for the Champions League final and did not go beyond the draw (1-1) against Tottenham at Anfield.
The team led by Jürgen Klopp slept as leader, but if Manchester City beats Newcastle this Sunday at the Etihad Stadium, as expected, the team coached by Pep Guardiola will be heading for its fourth Premier League in the last five years because it will be three points over his rival and with nine to play.
LIVLiverpool
one
Alisson, Virgil Van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, Trent Alexander-Arnold, A. Robertson (Konstantinos Tsimikas, min. 63), Henderson (Diogo Jota, min. 64), Thiago, Fabinho (Naby Keita, min. 87), Mane, Salah and Luis Diaz
TOT Tottenham
one
Lloris, Ben Davies, Cristian Romero, Eric Dier, Emerson, Ryan Sessegnon (Davinson Sánchez, min. 77), Rodrigo Bentancur, Hojbjerg, Dejan Kulusevski (Harry Winks, min. 84), Heung-Min Son (Steven Bergwijn, min. 91) and Kane
Goals
0-1 min.
55: Heung-Min Son.
1-1 min.
73: Luis Diaz.
Referee
Michael Oliver
Yellow cards Ben Davies (min. 52), Konstantinos Tsimikas (min. 68), Ryan Sessegnon (min. 69), Fabinho (min. 79) and Naby Keita (min. 92)
All in all, the situation was close to being more desperate for Liverpool, who were at a disadvantage until the final stretch of the match and lived through the close on the wire, delivered to a heads or tails in which Hojberg, who had already finished off the post Before the break, he had the victory for Spurs, who are locked in the fight for a place in the next Champions League with Arsenal, their arch-rival who they face next Thursday.
At Anfield they tasted victory in a duel in which they suffered and caused suffering, overwhelmed as they were for a long stretch of the first half, dominating at the start of the second when Sessegnon scored and the
Reds
, so exuberant minutes before, paled.
Even so, not even in a lowered version did they stop hitting: up to 22 times they finished off.
They lacked aim because only three times they managed to place the ball between the three sticks.
One of them, to the crossbar, was sent by Van Dijk with a header.
Nor did the leathery rival defense help them, lavish in blocking shots, with actions that bordered on heroism.
Tottenham struggled in a match that required a pick and shovel and found the goal in a play worked on from Lloris and in which several Liverpool footballers were reluctant to withdraw.
The local fireworks were barely led to the target by the Colombian Luis Díaz.
Now that, in the scarcity, the benefits of the street player are claimed, few like him, raised in a camp of peasant Indians, on the Colombian peninsula that is inserted into the Caribbean Sea, in the jungle land between Barranquilla and Maracaibo Diaz grew up, to whom the
Pibe
Valderrama gave the alternative to make him play, at just 17 years old, a curious and never repeated Copa América of indigenous peoples.
That undernourished Wayuu teenager gives Liverpool fang and impudence since last January, when they paid Porto 45 million euros for him, which can reach 60 depending on variables.
And it wasn't easy to sharpen a team that attacks in waves.
A goal of his, a quarter of an hour from the end, keeps his team with options not only to win the Premier, but to opt for the poker of titles that he longs for.
Liverpool's roadmap to the final in Paris is demanding and will require Klopp finesse in rotations.
Against Tottenham nothing was saved.
On Tuesday he will visit Aston Villa, on Saturday he will play the Cup final against Chelsea and the following week he will visit Southampton before finishing the Premier at Anfield against Wolverhampton, six days before the match against Real Madrid.
"At this moment we are not exultant, but we have to keep going because there is still a lot to play for," says Klopp, who admitted that the performance was not high, but he left satisfied with the mentality and effort of his team.
"It's been humiliating"
Very far from the two current giants of the Premier, Manchester United is hitting rock bottom.
He has one game left to play, at the home of Crystal Palace.
He will not be able to climb beyond sixth place, but right now it depends on West Ham to keep him and not fall a rung that would separate him from the Europa League and send him to litigate in the Conference.
In Brighton he lost 4-0 and manager Ralf Ragnick did not temper bagpipes.
“He has been humiliating”, he settled after alluding to a collective defect.
“We don't know how to defend ourselves as a team.
We're not good enough to do it."
We are facing a United that breaks records.
Since 1979 a championship had not finished after conceding so many goals.
Then he conceded 63, now he is going for 56. And since 1981 he has not lost five consecutive games away from home.
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