Three years ago today, Liverpool and Tottenham produced one of the great late Klopp-era Premier League games.
It was a fitting snapshot of that strange 2022/23 season, with Liverpool looking dominant at some points and downright awful at others. Liverpool and Spurs were only two points apart in the table, with the Reds ultimately finishing in a disappointing fifth.
Yet this was one of the afternoons that fans will look back on fondly from that difficult campaign. A seven-goal thriller, a Diogo Jota winner in front of the Kop and Jurgen Klopp injuring himself while celebrating, it had everything.
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Liverpool 4-3 Spurs, the craziest late finish of the Jurgen Klopp era
Liverpool could hardly have started better. Curtis Jones opened the scoring after just three minutes, arriving onto Trent Alexander-Arnold’s clipped cross to finish emphatically past Fraser Forster.
Two minutes later, Luis Diaz marked his return to the starting XI by turning in Mohamed Salah’s delivery. By the 15th minute, Salah had made it 3-0 from the penalty spot after Cristian Romero fouled Cody Gakpo.
At that stage, Tottenham looked finished. Liverpool were rampant, Anfield was bouncing and Spurs were heading for another ugly afternoon after their 6-1 defeat at Newcastle a week earlier.
But Klopp’s side, as they often did that season, opened the door to the opposition. Harry Kane pulled one back before half-time, Son Heung-min hit the post after the break and then made it 3-2 with 13 minutes to play.
The nerves grew. Liverpool stopped controlling the game and Tottenham smelled an opportunity. In stoppage time, Richarlison headed in Son’s free-kick to make it 3-3, celebrating what looked like a dramatic rescue act and his first Premier League goal for the North London outfit.
But seconds later, the late heroics would be cancelled out. Lucas Moura’s loose header gave Liverpool a gilt-edged chance, and Jota grabbed the decisive goal to beat Spurs.
Anfield erupted. Klopp sprinted towards the fourth official in celebration and somehow pulled his hamstring in the process, later joking that he had received his punishment.
It remains one of those moments that summed the German up completely. The emotion, the connection with the crowd and the inability to experience football at anything less than full volume.
It is hard to imagine Arne Slot doing the same on the touchline. But then, Klopp was one of a kind.
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