Postecoglou said before the kick -off that his team would play on the front foot, but that turned out not to be the case at all. Exactly opposite was true.
Tottenham spent the entire first period in their own half of the field. First, while they tried to protect their first leg lead. It was a pretty intentional tactic.
After Liverpool scored in the 34TN minute, Spurs just couldn't get out. Against the interval, Liverpool was a goal and right in the draw and it was the least they deserved.
There had been a little needle early. The Tottenham striker Richarlison once played for Everton and is therefore not popular in these parts. Within the first ten minutes he fell under a wagging arm of Virgil van Dijk and although the Brazilian made the best of it, there was clear contact with his throat. The captain of Liverpool was lucky to escape from sanction.
Not long after, the couple collided again. This time Van Dijk offered his hand as if he wanted to help his opponent, just to withdraw it when Richarlison reached. All very childish.
In terms of football, Liverpool was dominant in every possible way. Slot had explained some players while Postecoglou had played a new defender – the Austrian Kevin Danson – and had his exciting teen loan Mathys Tel on the couch.
It happened that count was just before the break when Richarlison fell victim to a muscle load. He left the field accompanied by a few Histrionics.
Liverpool did not swarm all over Tottenham. It was more a probing than a completely bloated attack. Dominik Szobolszlai saw an early shot saved by Antonin Kinsky and had blocked another shot, just like Ryan Gravenberch. Darwin Nunez had meanwhile saved a header before Mo Salah played in Szobozslai to score the right side alone for the Hungarian in the 30th minute to mark half a garden outdoors.
The efforts of Spurs during the break were too negligible. At a certain moment they broke up so carefully that they were seven players in the number in two. Liverpool had 73 percent against the interval and managed eleven shots. The most important thing is that they had also scored a goal at the time.
It came from a Tottenham error when Yves Bissouma possesses in midfield. When Gravenberch worked the ball on Sala on the right side, his crotch was missed by Nunez with the outside of his left foot, but fell in the far post by Gakpo.
It was a nice finish from the Dutch international. He deteriorated and it was therefore a challenge to collect power. Nevertheless, Kinksy – low diving on his right side with two hands – should have saved it. It was his mistake.
Salah then hit the top of the bar with a distant volley when Liverpool tried to squeeze life out of the game. Halfway through the night and traces are already on.
In the first five minutes of the second period, however, it looked a lot worse.
The start of Liverpool up to half was explosive. Three times they threatened the Spurs goal in 90 seconds, with Kinsky the second, a header from a corner of Szoboszlai.
Then they scored from a penalty. Salah's ball behind the central defenders of Tottenham was amazing. It was perfect in centimeters and when Nunez galloped it, you saw the penalty a mile away. Kinsky brought the Liverpool striker down properly and Salah converted the penalty high to Kinsky's straight at the head end.
Now Spurs had to gamble. They had to come into play. Postecoglou sent two subs and Spurs suddenly came out to play and pressed their opponents high on the field in a style that is more associated with their manager.
That of course made them vulnerable at the back and from that Liverpool began to create overloads of the countertop. From one, in the 63rd minute, Salah and Curtis Jones fed Gakpo who shoot the far post about the goal.
The tie was definitely finished with twenty minutes left. A spurs goal would again portray them, while another from Liverpool would signal the end.
Tottenham is not the first group of players who blindly stumble from the green hectares of Anfield who is stripped of goal, faith, hope and dignity. Neither will they be the last as Arne Slot and his team continue to play like that.
This was supposed to be a cup in the balance, a meeting of spirits and styles, a competition. But it wasn't. It was an evacuation of white by red. It was a dismantling, a derobating, a humiliation. It was four, but it could have been five. Tottenham just never had in-han hope for a seasonal-saving cup final of them torn without grace-to-run Liverpool produced a version that was almost perfect.
Maybe it was perfect. Is there such a thing in the sport? Maybe not. But this was as good as it had to be and maybe almost as good as it could ever be on an occasion like this.
The players of Ange Postecoglou did their best. In the first half they played wisely when they tried to protect their slender lead in the first leg and keep Liverpool on the length of the arm.
They were in it and they compressed the space and they worked hard. And they only succeeded in 34 minutes for one goal – from Cody Gakpo – to skewers and from that moment on Liverpool she tore apart as wild dogs.
Liverpool was irresistible in the second half. A penalty from Mo Salah was ahead in the draw and then a goal of almost breathtaking beauty of Dominik Szoboszlai – made by the budding talent of Conor Bradley – meant that Virgil van Dijk's header was from a late corner and nothing else.
Liverpool will stop when they meet Newcastle in Wembley next month. Tottenham now has a FA Cup -Stropdas in Aston Villa on Sunday evening. Loss that and their season will contain nothing but question marks.
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