# Liverpool’s Nine-Man Fight at Tottenham Ends in Heartbreaking Defeat
Liverpool’s unbeaten start to the Premier League season came to an end in heartbreaking fashion at Tottenham, as a last-minute own goal from Joel Matip gave Spurs a 2-1 win. The Reds had gone so close to taking a point despite having two players sent off and a goal wrongly ruled out for offside due to a “significant human error” by VAR.
Summer signing Wataru Endo, who came on with Liverpool reduced to nine men, said: “At the end, a very tough game but there were 50-50 decisions in the game and yeah, it’s very difficult to play with nine players. I wanted to get one point so I am very disappointed about it.”
The Reds had gone into the match looking to extend their unbeaten start to the season, but their task was made much harder when Curtis Jones’ booking was upgraded to red midway through the first half after his challenge was reviewed by VAR. Son Heung-min soon broke the deadlock, only for Liverpool to equalise through Cody Gakpo.
Diogo Jota, who had come on for Gakpo at half-time, was then sent off for two yellows in the 69th minute, leaving Liverpool with nine men for the remainder of the match. The main talking point of the match though was how Luis Diaz’s opener was wrongly ruled out for offside due to a mistake by VAR Darren England.
Endo said: “I am just so proud of this team. I am just disappointed. We have to learn from this result and of course we showed our spirit, even though we faced difficult decisions we fought until the end. That’s Liverpool and always we have to try to win the game. We can learn from this game but we just keep going.”
Matip will be particularly desperate to win after his late own goal in the capital, but Endo says nobody in the dressing room is blaming the defender. “Actually, he played an amazing game today so no-one can say something to him,” he told the club website. “I am so proud of what he did today and I am so proud of what my team-mates did today.”
Liverpool will look to bounce back from their first Premier League defeat of the season at Brighton next Sunday before attention turns to international matches. Despite the disappointment of the result, Endo’s words show that the Reds will take the lessons learned from this match and use them to push forward in their quest for success this season.