Liverpool sweep Tottenham aside to book Carabao Cup final with Newcastle

Ange Postecoglou mused recently about hope and the inherent futility of it with the way that things have gone for Tottenham this season. Every time the manager had seen “light at the end of the tunnel”, he said, it had “usually been an oncoming train”. It was an appropriate way to describe Liverpool, who did not so much roll into the Carabao Cup final, their first such showpiece under Arne Slot, as steamroll their way there. They refused to countenance any other outcome and they utterly flattened Spurs. Who can stop Liverpool this season? It is the question on everybody’s lips as they look down from the summit of the Premier League and eye glory in the Champions League and FA Cup, too.

Nobody really believed that Spurs would do so here, probably not even the diehards who made the trip up north and it was over, really, when Mohamed Salah scored from the penalty spot early in the second half to give them the aggregate lead. Spurs offered nothing as an attacking force apart from one late shot from the captain, Son Heung-min, that crashed against the bar. But then it was 3-0, Dominik Szoboszlai having added further to Cody Gakpo’s opener, and there was still time for the imperious Virgil van Dijk to add the fourth. It will be up to Newcastle to deny Liverpool in the final. Slot’s team will start as the heavy favourites.

It had been easy to feel that Liverpool wanted to right a couple of recent wrongs against Spurs from matches in London. There was the Luis Díaz disallowed goal farrago but more pertinently, perhaps, the first leg of this tie when Spurs midfielder Lucas Bergvall ought to have been sent off rather than allowed to stay on to score the only goal. The occasion did not need the niggle between Van Dijk and Richarlison at the outset to light any kind of touchpaper but it got it all the same. Richarlison accused Van Dijk of throwing an elbow at him; the Spurs striker tumbling dramatically. “You know,” Richarlison would mouth at him. And when Van Dijk fouled him a little later and offered him a hand up, it certainly looked as if he then withdrew it.

Postecoglou started with Archie Gray at right-back, surprisingly omitting Pedro Porro. It was yet another test for Gray after all of those in central defence. Postecoglou’s idea was to be compact, cautious even and for the travelling fans massed in the lower tier of the Anfield Road end there were unusual sights. When Dejan Kulusevksi and Richarlison broke just before the half-hour, it was only them against seven red shirts.

Slowly but surely Liverpool turned up the heat. Their runners off the ball posed questions, especially up the channels. Their press became an increasing problem for Spurs. They dominated possession. Liverpool came to camp in the Spurs half and they had the ball in the net for what they thought was 1-0 when Salah fizzed one up the channel for Dominik Szoboszlai to sweep home, but the midfielder was offside.

The breakthrough had been advertised and it came after a loose Yves Bissouma pass. The error did not happen in a vacuum. This is what Slot’s Liverpool do to you. The ball was worked wide to Salah and when he crossed with the outside of his boot and Darwin Núñez brought a dose of chaos in the centre, it ran for Gakpo. His feet were planted but he was able to summon the power. Should Antonin Kinsky have done more to keep out the shot? Possibly. The goalkeeper was a little erratic in the first 45 minutes.

Sign up to Football Daily. Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football. after newsletter promotion. Kinksy got his fingertips to a Salah volley that bounced down and reared up on 44 minutes, although he still needed the top of the bar to help him out. At the other end, Richarlison had gone down with what looked like a muscle injury – yet another for Spurs. Liverpool had played on. Richarlison beat the ground in frustration and it is probably worth reporting that sympathy was in short supply from the Kop for the former Everton player.

Postecoglou introduced Mathys Tel, his new outfield signing, having started his other one, the centre-half Kevin Danso. Thank heavens for Danso. Spurs’ other three specialist central defenders were injured, a part of the selection crisis that had denied Postecoglou 10 players at kick-off. That was always going to be a part of the story. Slot’s only enforced absentee was Trent Alexander-Arnold. Kinsky was in the spotlight at the start of the second half. Liverpool brought still more intensity and the goalkeeper did well to repel a Szoboszlai header from a corner. And yet moments later, when Salah played a teasing ball into the area for Núñez, it was possible to foresee the disaster. The Uruguayan was always going to be too quick, Kinsky was never going to pull out of the attempt to claim the ball. All he touched was Núñez. Salah picked out a top corner from the spot.

Spurs knew that a goal for them stood to change everything. They were still technically in it. And yet it did not feel that way as Liverpool harassed them, refusing to give a moment’s peace. Gakpo and Ryan Gravenberch both hit a post. A third Liverpool goal would have been curtains. Szoboszlai drew them shut. It was a lovely first-time assist from Conor Bradley after good work by the substitute Alexis Mac Allister. The finish was never in doubt.