Liverpool kept alive their slim hopes of finishing in the Premier League’s top four as Diogo Jota’s stoppage-time strike sparked a Tottenham comeback from three goals behind in a thrilling 4-3 win on Sunday.
Jota blasted his dramatic winner just moments after Richardson headed Tottenham level in stoppage-time at Anfield.
Curtis Jones put Liverpool ahead and Luis Diaz scored the hosts’ second goal in the opening five minutes at Anfield, for the first time since October after an injury-plagued campaign.
A Mohamed Salah penalty gave Liverpool a dominant start before Harry Kane reduced the deficit with his 208th Premier League goal.
Tottenham striker Wayne Rooney is equal with the Premier League’s joint second highest scorer of all time behind Alan Shearer.
Son Heung-min and Richardson scored late goals in a surprise finish after Kane’s strike, which ended with Jota’s winner.
A wild celebration from Jurgen Klopp after injuring himself left the Liverpool manager limping and earned a booking, with Tottenham caretaker boss Ryan Mason left fuming by the German’s display of emotion in front of the visitors’ bench.
Klopp’s passionate play came amid Liverpool’s bid to salvage a disappointing season by qualifying for next season’s Champions League.
The Reds still have a mountain to climb to reach the top four as they are seven points behind fourth-placed Manchester United, who have a game in hand.
“Thanks to Jota we survived it. It makes it great and everyone goes home, but I’m the manager so I have to mention everything else,” Klopp said before criticizing referee Paul Tierney.
“We have history with Tierney. My celebration was unnecessary, which is fair but what he said to me when he gave me the yellow card was not fair.”
While Tottenham’s top-four hopes are in tatters, Liverpool are unbeaten in their last six games and have won four in a row to move up to fifth.
Sixth-placed Tottenham are winless in four matches and are nine points behind the top four with four matches remaining.
Mason is Tottenham’s third manager in a turbulent season that saw Antonio Conte leave by mutual consent before his replacement, Cristian Stelini, was sacked following last weekend’s 6-1 loss at Newcastle.
“Shocked. We were a better team by a full country mile,” said Mason, who claimed Jota should have been sent off for fouling Oliver Skipp.
“I have to be careful what I say but ultimately it is impossible to miss.”
It took Liverpool just three minutes to breach the porous Tottenham defense as Trent Alexander-Arnold fired a superb cross at the far post, where Jones slotted coolly past Fraser Foster for his first goal since 2021 .
– helpless defense –
Tottenham had conceded five times in the first 21 minutes against Newcastle and they were again in disarray.
With Tottenham’s hapless defense unable to take on Liverpool’s runners, Colombia winger Díaz doubled the lead in the fifth minute.
Salah’s pass sent Cody Gakpo racing into the area and he pulled back a cross from the byline for Diaz to volley home from close-range.
In the 14th minute, Cristian Romero’s reckless challenge spread Gakpo, conceding a penalty that Salah fired into the roof of the net.
Kane had not thrown in the towel and he netted in the 40th minute, volleying home from close-range after Ivan Perisic avoided Virgil van Dijk’s lunge to pick out the England captain.
Towards the end a spell of Tottenham pressure erupted and Romero’s volley hit Son twice before also hitting the woodwork.
With Liverpool losing all momentum in the second half, Son netted a superb finish under Alisson Becker from Romero’s pass in the 77th minute.
When Richardson headed in his first league goal for Tottenham from Son’s free-kick in the second minute of stoppage-time, the visitors seemed to have made a spectacular escape.
But seconds later Jota pounced with a nerve-wracking finish from an acute angle to send Klopp into a frenzy on the touchline.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)