Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp said his team’s 4-2 victory over Tottenham Hotspur was a “mirror of their season” as they held off a late wobble on Sunday to further dent the Spurs’ hopes of a top-four English Premier League finish.
The Reds had won just one of their previous five league games to realistically end their shot at the title, but were back in the groove as they raced to a 4-0 lead.
Mohamed Salah was restored to the starting lineup after his public spat with Klopp last weekend and opened the floodgates before Andy Robertson, Cody Gakpo and Harvey Elliott were also on target.
Photo: Reuters
Richarlison and Son Heung-min replied late on for Tottenham, but the damage to their chances of competing in the UEFA Champions League next season was already done.
Klopp’s men are guaranteed to finish no lower than third and closed the gap on leaders Arsenal to five points with two games remaining.
“It’s a little bit of a mirror of the season. Really, really, really good until we were really rubbish and then, we were okay again,” said Klopp, who was taking charge of his penultimate game at Anfield.
“The moment you let them play, immediately, you see what they can do. If you don’t let them play, then you can hurt them,” he added.
Spurs have now lost four consecutive games to leave manager Ange Postecoglou’s men still seven points adrift of fourth-placed Aston Villa with just nine left to play for.
Tottenham realistically need to win all of their three remaining games, including at home to title-chasing Manchester City, to have any hope of reeling in Villa. Yet based on their current form, they might even struggle to see off Burnley and Sheffield United, as Spurs have collapsed after a highly promising start to Postecoglou’s reign.
The Australian admitted after a 2-0 defeat to Chelsea on Thursday that his message was not getting through to his players, and there was no reaction from the visitors until it was too late.`
“Obviously a hugely disappointing outcome for us,” Postecoglou said. “At 4-0 you’ve got a mountain to climb, but when we play like ourselves we always finish strong, because we put pressure on the opposition.”
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Coco Gauff’s dreams of a first women’s singles title in Melbourne were crushed in the quarter-finals by Paula Badosa. World No. 2 Alexander Zverev was ruffled by a stray feather in his men’s singles quarter-final, but he refocused to beat 12th seed Tommy Paul and reach the semi-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in 2 hours, 20 minutes to advance the semi-finals. Hsieh and Ostapenko converted eight of 14 break
The San Francisco Giants signed 18-year-old Taiwanese pitcher Yang Nien-hsi (陽念希) to a contract worth a total of US$500,000 (NT $16.39 million). At a press event in Taipei on Wednesday, Jan. 22, the Giants’ Pacific Rim Area scout Evan Hsueh (薛奕煌) presented Yang with a Giants jersey to celebrate the signing. The deal consisted of a contract worth US$450,000 plus a US$50,000 scholarship bonus. Yang, who stands at 188 centimeters tall and weighs 85 kilograms, is of Indigenous Amis descent. With his fastest pitch clocking in at 150 kilometers per hour, Yang had been on Hsueh’s radar since playing in the HuaNan Cup
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
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