Antonin Kinsky impresses on Tottenham Hotspur debut as Lilywhites down Liverpool in EFL Cup semi-final first leg

Barely three days after joining Tottenham Hotspur in a €16 million deal from Slavia Prague, Antonin Kinsky was thrown straight into the thick of things, having been named in the starting XI for Wednesday’s EFL Cup clash against Liverpool.

Having watched city rivals Arsenal fall to a 2-0 defeat to Newcastle United in their semi-final tie 24 hours earlier, Spurs took on the challenge of high-flying Liverpool just 17 days after December’s 6-3 defeat.

Ange Postecoglou’s men should have opened the scoring after just six minutes when Radu Dragusin directed Heung-min Son’s effort towards goal, but Alisson was on hand to thwart the Romanian.

However, that was to be the final piece of action for the next eight minutes as Rodrigo Bentacur needed some medical attention having gone down moments earlier.

The Uruguayan was eventually replaced by Brennan Johnson in the 15th minute, and Spurs continued to dominate and came close to taking the lead through Dominic Solanke.

Having cut a peripheral figure across the opening exchanges, Mohamed Salah had his first crack at goal just past the midway point of the first half, although the winger dragged his effort wide of the far post.

Liverpool would suffer an injury casualty of their own shortly afterwards with Wataru Endo coming on for Jarell Quansah on the half-hour mark.

Spurs new boy Kinsky had his first test between the sticks in the 33rd minute courtesy of Alexis McAllister’s tame header from a Kostas Tsimikas delivery.

The goalkeeper was called into action once again in first-half stoppage time by Cody Gakpo this time around, and Kinsky just about managed to gather the ball after initially fumbling what looked like a routine save.

While Kinsky saved most of his shot-stopping heroics for the second half, his solid distribution was already on display right from the first 45 minutes.

Spurs were on the back foot for the final knockings of the first half but started the second half brightly and should have edged ahead 10 minutes into the second half when Pedro Porro failed to capitalise on Alisson’s loose distribution thanks in no small part to Lucas Bergvall’s unrelenting pressure.

Sent on as a substitute as Liverpool intensified their search for a goal, Darwin Nunez was denied by Kinsky twice in a seven-minute span as the 21-year-old really started to show why Tottenham splashed the cash.

However, Kinsky had Dragusin to thank for not conceding shortly afterwards when the defender cleared Trent Alexander-Arnold’s effort off the line with the game now stretched to a large extent.

Solanke was on target for Spurs in December’s defeat to Liverpool, and the Englishman looked to have haunted his former employers once again in the 77th minute, only for his goal to be ruled out by VAR.

Less than two minutes after escaping a second yellow card for a rash tackle on Tsimikas, Bergvall made Stuart Atwell’s decision not to send him off a bigger talking point than it would have normally been after he opened the scoring four minutes from time.

Aiming to level matters before next month’s return leg, Liverpool upped the ante in the final few minutes of the contest, although they and Nunez were denied once again by an inspired Kinsky in the 94th minute.

The debutant was named Man of the Match in as hard a first outing as you can get, and his arrival might just galvanise Tottenham’s season off the back of a rough spell for the North Londoners.

Spurs are next in action on Sunday against National League side Tamworth in the third round of the FA Cup.