Tottenham 0 Liverpool 1

Guest · Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 8:12 pm Post subject: Tottenham 0 Liverpool 1

December 30, 2006

LUIS GARCIA grabbed the winner on the stroke of half-time to give Liverpool the points and end Tottenham's run of home victories.

Spurs had won their previous 12 games at White Hart Lane but were undone in first-half stoppage time when Liverpool took advantage of poor defending.

Liverpool have been poor on the road this season - this was only their third away win in the Premiership - but looked comfortable for most of the match.

Rafa Benitez hailed the impact of Garcia after the match.

"He is a player of quality, with ups and downs but he has the quality of changing things".

He added: "You can be in the top four one week and it will be different the next. We're not really looking at the table.

"But we knew this one was important because they are close to us and Bolton will be the same (on Monday)".

Spurs boss Martin Jol felt his side deserved a point due to the chances they made in the second half.

"If you look at the second half, the worse the weather was the better we played.

"I think we deserved a point out of it but we couldn't score.

"Maybe they had only one chance in the second half and we had enough chances to get something out of the game".

Paul Robinson was Spurs' captain for the day and the England keeper had to be alert in the first couple of minutes.

Lee Young-Pyo's dreadful backpass had to be scrambled clear as Dirk Kuyt closed him down.

Mido had the first real effort on goal in the 10th minute when Jamie Carragher slipped while under pressure from Steed Malbranque.

But the Spurs striker blazed wide when he had more time on his hands than he thought.

Robinson fumbled a Craig Bellamy cross at the other end, while Defoe was well wide with a long-range effort.

Bellamy forced Robinson into a low save in the 27th minute following a move started by Steven Gerrard which also involved Kuyt.

The Dutch striker was then inches wide a minute later when Bellamy played the ball back to him on the edge of the area.

Spurs were struggling to create similar opportunities, although the visitors had to clear a dangerous cross from Huddlestone following a sweeping move.

Xabi Alonso drilled an effort wide from long range, while at the other end Mido had a header drift wide from a Lee cross from the left flank.

Liverpool took the lead in first-half injury time when Gerrard stubbed an effort towards goal - and Garcia slotted home from close range.

Bellamy had a long-range drive saved by Robinson two minutes after the restart.

But it was the last action he saw and he was replaced by Jermaine Pennant and headed down the tunnel for treatment.

Zokora came off for Danny Murphy just after Garcia had missed a glorious chance to double the lead by directing his free header into the ground.

In the 59th minute, Spurs boss Martin Jol answered the chants from the crowd to introduce Dimitar Berbatov, who replaced Mido.

Calum Davenport diverted Pennant's cross into his own side-netting as Liverpool went in search of another rather than sitting back.

They brought on Peter Crouch in place of Kuyt for the last 25 minutes, which also featured a storm as conditions got worse.

But Spurs almost grabbed a leveller when Berbatov's cross was headed by Steve Finnan against his own crossbar from point-blank range.

Malbranque then came close with a drive as the rain eased slightly, while Hossam Ghaly sliced horribly wide from close range as Spurs applied late pressure.

Reina had to beat away a drive from Defoe, while Berbatov had a late effort disallowed for offside.