Liverpool suffered their second defeat of the season on Wednesday in the semi-final first leg of the League Cup at Tottenham (1-0), a team largely weakened by injuries and setbacks.
The release for Tottenham came from a goal from Lucas Bergvall (86th, 1-0), an 18-year-old Swedish midfielder, started due to absences.
The current leader of the Premier League will have to make up for it in the return match on February 6 at Anfield if he wants to retain his title, the following month at Wembley.
In the meantime, Arne Slot’s team lost the invincibility it had managed to stretch over 24 matches (20 wins, 4 draws) and a defeat against Nottingham Forest in mid-September in the league, by the same score.
The Dutch coach had certainly rested some managers at kick-off, but his attack line looked great with Mohamed Salah, Diogo Jota and Cody Gakpo.
Conversely, the « Spurs » were decimated. And they lost their midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur at the very start of the game after a serious incident.
The Uruguayan midfielder, who fell badly after a diving header, remained on the ground for around ten minutes, taken care of by medical staff who evacuated him on a stretcher. The player, ” aware “went to the hospital for additional examinations, the club then indicated.
Coach Ange Postecoglou can consider himself cursed, since between the suspensions (Maddison and Sarr), the injuries or poor form (van de Ven, Udogie, Romero, Odobert, Richarlison…), he was almost missing an entire team Wednesday.
Antonin Kinsky, the young Czech goalkeeper from Tottenham, in front of Liverpool striker Cody Gakpo in the semi-final first leg of the League Cup on January 8, 2025 in Tottenham / JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP
And as the Australian lost his N.1 goalkeeper (Vicario) for several months, and his N.2 (Forster) for two matches, it was the new recruit Antonin Kinsky who was propelled into the cage, three days later his arrival in London.
At 21, the Czech from Slavia Prague experienced a particularly hot baptism of fire against the best attack in the Premier League. And did pretty well.
In the second half, he pushed back a lobbed shot from Salah under the crossbar (59th) and stopped a shot from Nunez (69th). Above all, he made a superb reflex save in front of the latter in added time (90th + 4).
