For Tottenham, the finish was as harrowing as the start, but for very different reasons. The humiliation came at the beginning, the sense this was a sorry sequel to their disastrous Sunday at Newcastle. The cruelty came at the last, the way the team who thought they had engineered a reverse Istanbul, coming from 3-0 down to peg Liverpool back, instead departed defeated. The majority at Anfield have savoured a famous 4-3 triumph or two over the years – one of the greatest of all Premier League games, against Newcastle, or the aggregate scoreline against Barcelona in a Champions League tie that took them to a final against Tottenham – and this became another.
It came down to two substitutes. Ryan Mason had conjured a second comeback in four days for Spurs, but went on the offensive by sending on wingers Arnaut Danjuma and Lucas Moura, telling wingers to masquerade as wing-backs. And so the Brazilian found himself in unfamiliar territory when Alisson punted the ball forward. If he was looking to find Cristian Romero, Moura instead only located Diogo Jota. The Liverpool substitute proved the coolest man in a febrile Anfield, slotting a shot under Fraser Forster.
