Liverpool fans will have had their hearts in the mouths shortly before the hour mark of tonight’s Carabao Cup semi-final first leg against Tottenham.
A drab first half was overshadowed by a worrying injury scare which saw Rodrigo Bentancur require lengthy treatment, although the north London club subsequently confirmed that the player is conscious and talking and will undergo further examination at hospital.
Once the action had resumed, the Reds struggled to get going and were second best for much of the night, and they could count themselves very fortunate not to have conceded a daft goal shortly after the interval.
In the 56th minute at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Alisson Becker was caught on the ball by Lucas Bergvall but managed to poke it away from the Swede.
However, it rolled straight to Pedro Porro, whose initial shot was blocked by Virgil van Dijk but he had a second bite at the cherry, only to hook the follow-up effort wide of the far post, thus letting the Liverpool goalkeeper off the hook.
Alisson’s world-class goalkeeping credentials have long since been proven beyond doubt, but sometimes he can be prone to taking needless liberties with the ball at the back, as he showed again tonight.
Sky Sports reporter Peter Smith bluntly observed that ‘he got lucky’, and it’s hard to disagree with that assessment of an inexplicably casual moment from the Liverpool number 1.
It summed up what has been a substandard performance from the Reds overall, who’ve looked a pale shadow of the side which effervescently won 6-3 against the same opposition at the same venue just 17 days ago.
Alisson got away with that one, and a subsequent Dominic Solanke goal disallowed for offside, but he had noa answer to a late Lucas Bergvall strike which ultimately broke the deadlock.
Let’s hope that the Liverpool goalkeeper learns from that error and doesn’t frighten the life out of us like that again.
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