Lucas Bergvall controversially gave Tottenham a 1-0 lead in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final against Liverpool.
The two sides played out a tense encounter at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Tuesday and it looked like it would end goalless after Dominic Solanke saw a goal disallowed for offside midway through the second half.
Yet Bergvall finished superbly in the 86th minute after good work from the tireless Solanke to score his first goal for Spurs.
Ange Postecoglou’s side secured victory ahead of next month’s second leg at Anfield, but Bergvall’s decisive contribution was controversial.
Liverpool were left fuming after the goal, with the Swedish midfielder perhaps lucky to still be on the pitch.
After being shown a yellow card in the first half for a sliding challenge on Luis Diaz – although replays suggested the Colombian went down with minimal contact – he took out Kostas Tsimikas with a sliding challenge.
However, Stuart Attwell did not show Bergvall a second yellow card, after which the 18-year-old scored moments later.
To make matters worse, Tsimikas was standing outside the field waiting to feature again with the Reds temporarily down to ten men when the Swede scored.
The Liverpool bench was left furious, with a member of the coaching staff shown a yellow card by Attwell for his protests, while Arne Slot protested to the fourth official.
After the match, Slot was clear in his claim that the referees had made a big mistake.
“On Sunday the decision was against Spurs, today it was about them,” he said.
‘Bad luck for us. Yes, there is no discussion about that (it should have been a second yellow card for Bergvall.’
MORE TO FOLLOW