Painful Draw Still Better for Liverpool than Tottenham

Two penalties that shouldn’t have been—regardless of whether one believed they were fouls worthy of the referee pointing to the penalty spot—and Tottenham pulling level with the final kick of the game. It’s not an easy result to take, not for Liverpool’s fans and not for the players, either.

“It doesn’t feel good at all,” said goalkeeper Loris Karius, who stopped the first penalty that shouldn’t have been but couldn’t save the second on the way to a 2-2 draw that left a rather bitter taste in his mouth. “I don’t know if it’s fair or not. As a player, it’s hard to believe what just happened.

“You score a goal so late and everyone thinks you’ve got it and then you have to take a point. If you look at it before the game, one point would have maybe been better for us than for them, but if you look at it after we lost two and they won one. We could have been five points in front right now.”

Instead of being five points clear of Spurs, Liverpool are just two points ahead. Still, as disappointing as the game’s ending was—as much as it felt like Liverpool losing something and Tottenham winning rather than two sides drawing—the truth of it is that it’s far from a bad result for Liverpool.

Spurs are chasing, and a draw keeps the status quo. It means Liverpool are still in control in the top four race, as they were before Sunday’s match. Tottenham, in the end, didn’t get the result they wanted, and Liverpool now need to focus on winning the next one and maintaining their advantage.

“They really, really needed to get a result,” Karius added. “Even if we were a bit tucked in, that’s how you have to be sometimes. Tottenham are a good team. We defended well and then got very unlucky [and] they scored a wonder goal.”