Sometimes the ugliest of goals can be the most beautiful. Should Liverpool win the title, they will savour the thought of two freakish late Anfield winners delivered by Belgians.
After Divock Origi’s strange decider in the Merseyside derby came Toby Alderweireld’s unwitting winner against Tottenham Hotspur, an own goal that the Kop greeted as though it were a scorcher.
The final whistle brought raucous, rumbustious celebrations. Jurgen Klopp was still more animated than usual in his exaggerated fist pumps, the crowd’s response still louder than normal. Tottenham represented the biggest obstacle on their path to glory and Liverpool cleared it: not convincingly, but crucially.
They still require Manchester City to drop points but they are top again. Another test was passed, another game ticked off. Just as they had done at Fulham before the international break, Liverpool summoned a late winner. It is a happy habit.
“We have to fight like crazy,” said Klopp. “"It is only positive. I said there are 500 ways to win a football game and today was slightly ugly. Who cares?”
Liverpool did not. A damaging draw had beckoned. Just as they did at Craven Cottage, they had lost a lead. Much as Klopp and Mauricio Pochettino tend to share the points in their meetings, two Brazilians had cancelled each other out, Roberto Firmino and Lucas Moura scoring.
Mohamed Salah did not, much as the Anfield tannoy announcer tried to credit him with the winner. Yet as his drought stretched into an eighth game, he found another way to exert an influence. He met Andrew Robertson’s cross with a header that Hugo Lloris spilled.
If not an error to rival Jordan Pickford’s in the Merseyside derby, he was still culpable as the ball bounced in off Alderweireld. “I had no clue how the ball went in,” admitted Klopp.
“You need fortune to win these types of games,” Trent Alexander-Arnold said. Liverpool got it. Alderweireld, who had denied Salah a goal earlier with a fine block, scarcely deserved his bad luck. Nor, arguably, did Spurs, who had showed resolve and versatility.
“It is very hard to lose like this,” said Lucas. “We played very well.” Yet the reality is their last five games have produced a solitary point. Their top-four status is imperilled.
“Now we start from zero and we can achieve what we want,” said Pochettino. “No one wants to lose but it's a different defeat than the ones we suffered against Southampton or Burnley.”
He acquitted himself well. He changed tactics mid-match. He sprang a surprise beforehand with the selection of Lucas. It was justified by the forward’s pace and persistence.
Harry Kane drew a blank on his 250th Spurs game, with Alisson thwarting him with an excellent stop, but nevertheless played a part in the Brazilian’s strike. He took a quick free kick with inch-perfect precision to find Kieran Trippier, 50 yards away. Christian Eriksen’s miscued shot proved a low centre for Lucas to become the first man other than Kane to score for Spurs since February 13.
Spurs had begun the brighter, only for Liverpool to lead. Once again, Robertson helped to compensate for the lack of invention in Klopp’s industrious midfield. His ninth assist of the season came from an enticing cross, Firmino got between Davinson Sanchez and Jan Vertonghen to head in.
Firmino was irrepressible, both leading the line and dropping deep to create. He could be elusive when Liverpool were in possession and persistent in his closing down when Spurs had the ball. He set the tone for a frenetic game in which both sides coughed up possession too often.
Sadio Mane came closest to providing a second goal, twice curling shots past the far post. Dele Alli almost levelled with a dipping volley. He curled an effort wide as Spurs almost won it.
The glaring miss, though, came from Moussa Sissoko, surging through and then lashing wildly over. Instead, the decisive touch did come from a Tottenham player, but it was Alderweireld and at the other end.
How to avoid crypto fraud
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The Equaliser 2
Director Antoine Fuqua
Starring: Denzel Washington, Bill Pullman, Melissa Leo, Ashton Sanders
Three stars
The%20specs
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Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
Available: Now
THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
The%20specs
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How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
UAE v Gibraltar
What: International friendly
When: 7pm kick off
Where: Rugby Park, Dubai Sports City
Admission: Free
Online: The match will be broadcast live on Dubai Exiles’ Facebook page
UAE squad: Lucas Waddington (Dubai Exiles), Gio Fourie (Exiles), Craig Nutt (Abu Dhabi Harlequins), Phil Brady (Harlequins), Daniel Perry (Dubai Hurricanes), Esekaia Dranibota (Harlequins), Matt Mills (Exiles), Jaen Botes (Exiles), Kristian Stinson (Exiles), Murray Reason (Abu Dhabi Saracens), Dave Knight (Hurricanes), Ross Samson (Jebel Ali Dragons), DuRandt Gerber (Exiles), Saki Naisau (Dragons), Andrew Powell (Hurricanes), Emosi Vacanau (Harlequins), Niko Volavola (Dragons), Matt Richards (Dragons), Luke Stevenson (Harlequins), Josh Ives (Dubai Sports City Eagles), Sean Stevens (Saracens), Thinus Steyn (Exiles)
SANCTIONED
- Kirill Shamalov, Russia's youngest billionaire and previously married to Putin's daughter Katarina
- Petr Fradkov, head of recently sanctioned Promsvyazbank and son of former head of Russian Foreign Intelligence, the FSB.
- Denis Bortnikov, Deputy President of Russia's largest bank VTB. He is the son of Alexander Bortnikov, head of the FSB which was responsible for the poisoning of political activist Alexey Navalny in August 2020 with banned chemical agent novichok.
- Yury Slyusar, director of United Aircraft Corporation, a major aircraft manufacturer for the Russian military.
- Elena Aleksandrovna Georgieva, chair of the board of Novikombank, a state-owned defence conglomerate.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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