Chapter 5
Tuesday 20th September 2011
Tottenham Hotspur Vs Liverpool
Carling Cup
We had stayed down in London for the three days after we had travelled to White Hart Lane for the first time that season, and were going into our first Carling Cup game off the back of a 1-0 (Torres (64)) win over against the team we faced that night, Tottenham. To go with the injuries to Johnson and Babel, we had now lost Mascharno (twisted knee, 2 weeks) and Skrtel (fractured ribs, 3-4 weeks), but despite the growing injury list I was confident that we could dump Spurs out of the Carling Cup at the first hurdle.
Unfortunatly for us, Tottenham and more specifically former Liverpool player Robbie Keane had other ideas. As te Irish man ran through passed Dirk Marcellis after just two minutes and slotted home, 1-0 down and the game hadn’t even got started. Ten short minutes later and the night got even worse for us. I was forced to replace Fernando Torres, after a rash challenge from Ledley King saw the Spaniard fall awkwardly on his arm, and he was unable to continue, so I sent on David Ngog to replace him.
Twenty seventh minute and a bad night got even worse as Younes Kaboul’s long range effort deflected off Glenn Johnson, and went past Reina, 2-0 down and we were fading away quickly. We need some inspiration from somewhere and as usual, we turned to Steven Gerrard for the answer. I pushed him further forward, and the changed worked, Gerrard and Lopez combining well, only to see Gerrard’s shot saved well by Gomes and going out for a corner. Gerrard’s corner floated in from the left, Gomes went up to meet it, but Jamie Carragher out jumped the keeper and the ball crashed into the net off of his head. 2-1 and we were back in the game.
The goal worked wonders for us as we started limting Tottenham to long range shots, and started creating chances for ourselves, Danny Rose broke down the left crossed the ball for Ngog, but once again Gomes saved. Aquilani and Lopez both saw their shot go just wide and Michael Dawson was forced to clear off the line from Gerrard’s header once again from rose on the left. As the ref blew up for the end of the second half, despite being 2-1 down we were on top.
The second half got underway and once again Robbie Keane led the attack on our goal, he went passed Johnson and cut inside, as he did he knocked the ball past Carragher who tripped the Irish forward. Howard Webb ran straight over and reached into his back pocket, I was outraged as he pulled out his red card. Carragher, our fans and myself looked on in disbelief as Jamie was sent off. 2-1 down and now down to ten men, after being confident that we could dump Tottenham out, we were facing an up hill struggle to get back into the game. The result free kick hit the bar from Huddlestone as Spurs looked to extend their lead. And they should have on fifty two minutes as Keane went through our defence and was one on one with Reina, the Spaniard saving well at the feet of Keane.
Just five minutes later David Ngog finally got into the game, a flick from Kuyt sent the Frenchman through on goal he knocked it past Woodgate, who bought him down just inches outside the box. Howard Webb once again went to his pocket, again producing the red card, evening the teams up to ten each and giving us a great chance to equalise from the resulting free kick. Aquilani knocked the ball to his left in to the path of Gerrard, he crashed the ball past the ensuing wall, past Gomes and on to the post. The ball rebounded to Lopez, his shot saved on the line by King, who forced the ball away to Johnson on the edge of the box, he struck the ball perfectly on the volley from about twenty yards, Gomes unable to stop the ball, it nearly ripped the net as we equalised. 2-2.
An hour gone, I replaced Rose with Gai Assulin and the young Israeli got straight into the game, he flew past Huddlestone and Palacios, his cross was wiped to the back post and met by Dirk Kuyt, who’s header clipped the top of the bar and went over. Aquilani’s shot hit thr bar, Assulin’s chip was well saved by Gomes and Lopez’s shot just went past the post as we went after the win. With just five minutes remaining and both teams on two goals each Spurs should have scored as Huddleston hit the post, and then Keane and Huddlestone exchanged passes, Keanes shot again saved well by Reina.
With neither team able to break each other down in the latter stages, we headed into the extra time. Having already made all three subs, I couldn’t bring on any fresh legs, despite the most players starting to tire, but Tottenham faced similar problems, having used all three of theirs as well.
With both teams tiring we canceled each other out, and it took the entire first half of extra time before either rof us had a meaningful shot on target, that coming through Robbie Keane from Spurs. It wasn’t until added time of the first half did we have a real chance, Assulin burst through past King, the tiring centre back pulled back the young Israeli and bought him down, from where I was it looked outside but Howard Webb pointed at the spot and we had a penalty! King only got booked despite him being the last defender. Dirk Kuyt stepped up confidently and struck the ball perfectly towards the right corner, only for Gomes long out stretched arm to get in the way, The Spurs fans went wild as the ball went behind for a corner, a corner we didn’t have time to take as the referee signaled the end of the first half of extra time. The second half wasn’t much better than the first, Gerrard and Kuyt going closest from us but not forcing a save from Gomes. And the match went to penalties.
After sixteen penalties (yes sixteen) neither team had missed and we were locked at 8-8, as Gomes looking nervous stepped up to take his spot kick, he placed the ball down and started his run up. Side footing to Reina’s left, the Spaniard diving well and saving the ball. Finally we had a chance to win the game and dump Tottenham out of the Carling Cup. Dirk Marcellis was our next penalty taker, and he didn’t look any more confident than Gomes as he walked toward the Tottenham penalty area, our fans behind the goal look equally as nervous. Dirk placed the ball down, Gomes refused to go back onto his line straight away, when he finally did Marcellis ran up to the ball, he went to side foot but miss hit it, the ball spooning to the right, luckily it was on target as Gomes went the wrong way. Marcellis ran back toward the huddle of Liverpool players ensuing from the half way line to congratulate our centre back. Our fans jumped around in the stand as I shock hands with Tottenham manager and friend of mine, Harry Redknapp for the second time in four days. And for the second time in four days we were victorious over the North London club.
We were still top of the league winning all five of our opening league games and now we were into the fourth round of the Carling Cup. The performance wasn’t exactly outstanding, but a win is a win and as we travelled back up North to Liverpool I was happy with the result and the way everything was going.
