Rarely does a game this highly anticipated live up to the hype. Liverpool beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 tonight, in a midweek top of the table clash that saw the defending champions go back in first place. Roberto Firmino scored the game winner, as regulation turned into injury time.
Spurs’ woes defending set pieces continued as Bobby Firmino was able to go top left corner off a header. A thrilling moment for the Brazilian, he celebrated with pure joy.
Look how much the winning goal meant to Roberto Firmino ? pic.twitter.com/ZUNMkzuOeS
— B/R Football (@brfootball) December 16, 2020
Liverpool are now in first by themselves, with 28 point and a +10 goal differential. Tottenham are now second, with 25 points and a +13 goal differential. After the match, the two managers, Jose Mourinho and Jurgen Klopp got into an exchange that looked a bit contentious, but ended with a smile.
The Tottenham boss threw in a dig at Klopp’s touchline behavior, but the Reds manager refused to be drawn into escalating the situation.
Regarding the other two goals in the game, Firmino’s front line mate, Mohamed Salah, opened the scoring with a very fortunate deflection off of Spurs central defender Toby Alderweireld and into the corner of the net.
The lone goal from the visitors was scored when Giovani Lo Celso perfectly played in Heung-min Son, who timed his run perfectly to pull Tottenham level with Liverpool at halftime. The score stood a VAR review which contemplated a potential offsides situation.
The match was knotted up at 1-1 at the break, despite the visitors having just one shot on goal up to that time.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.