Defender Andy Robertson believes Liverpool have to build on the boost of their last-minute victory over Tottenham.
Roberto Firmino netted a 90th-minute header and the significance of the 2-1 win was certainly not lost on the Brazil international who set off on a run three-quarters of the length of the pitch to celebrate in front of 1,500 fans in the Kop leaving his team-mates trailing in his wake.
Three points – and a 66th Anfield league match unbeaten – lifted Jurgen Klopp’s defending champions above their opponents and back to the top of the Premier League to make light of an injury list which currently extends to eight players, including all three recognised senior centre-backs.
🎵 THERE’S SOMETHING THAT THE KOP WANT YOU TO KNOW… 🎵 pic.twitter.com/UnBFbK9xrh — Andy Robertson (@andrewrobertso5) December 16, 2020
It felt like a significant moment akin to many of their late victories last season which saw them run away with their first title in 30 years, but Robertson insists it only counts for something if they continue the momentum.
“When you play against a big team, obviously top of the league – they were first going into this game – scoring a last-minute winner is big. All the lads felt it,” the Scotland international told liverpoolfc.com.
“But it’s only big if you use it in the right way and you try to kick on from it. We’re top of the league but there’s still a long way to go.
“But it’s a big win against a really, really good team. We created good chances, we dominated the ball first half; the second half was a bit more even.
𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒆𝒆 🤩 Enjoy Bobby Firmino's 90th-minute winner from multiple angles 👀 pic.twitter.com/Rc2mBwh0fq — Liverpool FC (@LFC) December 17, 2020
“We’ve beaten a good team and it’s always nice when you do that but they’ll be there, they’ll come back again and we need to be at our best every game to stay top now because there’s a lot of teams trying to catch us.
“It’s a lot closer race this year and it will go the whole way.
“We just need to keep doing what we’re doing, focus on us and keep picking up three points as much as we can.”
Firmino’s goal was only his seventh in 2020 and Liverpool’s fifth of the season in the final five minutes of a match, three of which have been the decisive goal of the game.
Having the belief to score late winners was a trait of last season and Robertson hopes it is a trend which will continue.
“I’m so happy for Bobby scoring the goal, you see how much it meant to him,” added the left-back.
“We’ve not scored many late goals this season, it has been a trademark of ours last season and the season before, but it’s so good to score last-minute winners, especially against a really good team like Tottenham.”
Manager Jurgen Klopp was keen to play down comparisons with the previous campaign, especially as the league is already looking very different this time around, but accepted it would go down as a significant moment in the campaign.
“I’m now not too much in the last season any more, to be honest. I can understand that people might think it was a little bit similar to last season,” he said.
“First and foremost, it was one of the best performances in a while. We had a few good games – Wolves was 10 days ago and was a top game.
“We play quite good football from time to time and that’s why we have the amount of points we have.
“We don’t compare it with last season, but it was the performance we needed for a massive three points.”
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