Arne Slot described the reaching of his first final with Liverpool as “special” after beating Tottenham to book their place at Wembley in the EFL Cup.
Liverpool destroyed a 1-0 shortage on Thursday with a 4-0 thrashing from Spurs in Anfield thanks to goals from Cody Gakpo, Mohamed Salah, Dominik Szoboszlai and Virgil van Dijk.
In the process, the Reds reached their 15th EFL Cup final, five more than any other side, and they will be confronted with Newcastle United for the trophy on 15 March.
They have now also switched to the showpiece at three of the last four occasions in which they lost the first stage of a semi-final, because they also did this in 2000-01 and 2002-03.
Although Slot did not want to think about the result for too long with a FA Cup fourth round draw against Plymouth Argyle on Sunday, he was delighted to reach the last two.
“Nice!” He said when he was asked how it felt to reach his first final with the club. “Although if you know me a little [you know] My thoughts are more on Sunday than thinking about a final in a month.
“Our performance was something that I liked the most. Reaching a final should always be special, even for this club.
“This club is used to playing finals, but we still work very hard every day to try to improve players – and the players want to improve themselves every day – but we are also in this industry to play the final.
“We already know how difficult the final will be because we were already opposite Newcastle, and they were very impressive [against Arsenal] also.”
Tottenham could not register any shot on goal against Liverpool, the first time that happened under Ange Postecoglou.
In fact, Spurs only managed five shots in general with a value of 0.18 expected goals (XG), although they had the woodwork reached through Son Heung-Min, minutes before Van Dijk scored the fourth of Liverpool.
“Very impressive,” Slot added. “I think I don't say anything strange, Tottenham gives goals because they have so many injury problems.
“That is probably the main reason why they admit goals – but they are always able to score goals and create a lot. For us to be so aggressive without the ball, it tells you nothing about Tottenham [and the way they attacked]That should tell you a lot about our working speed without the ball.
“That's what stood for me. To play against a team that is so good at creating opportunities, just a permission [chance of note]finally, [is] A good performance. “
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