Carabao Cup LIVE updates: Ange Postecoglou’s Spurs face Liverpool for a spot in the final

And if you wanted, you can re-live the whole live blog here.

Lucas Bergvall’s first goal for Tottenham secured a 1-0 win over Liverpool in the English League Cup semifinals on Wednesday in a first-leg match notable for a serious-looking injury to Rodrigo Bentancur and the first in-stadium announcement by a referee in the English game.

The 18-year-old Bergvall slotted home the winner in the 86th minute following a pass from Dominic Solanke, who thought 10 minutes earlier that he had given Tottenham the lead. That goal was ruled out after a VAR check for offside and referee Stuart Attwell communicated the decision via a wireless microphone to spectators inside Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and to TV viewers.

In the sixth minute, Bentancur — the Uruguay midfielder who plays for Tottenham — fell to the ground and lay prone after landing awkwardly when attempting a header from a corner. He was carried off on a stretcher, to applause from around the ground, after receiving treatment during a 10-minute delay.

The second leg is at Anfield on Feb. 6.

Newcastle leads Arsenal 2-0 after the first leg of the other semifinal match.

Liverpool, the defending League Cup champion, saw its 24-match unbeaten run in all competitions come to an end and there was a hint of controversy about only the team’s second loss of the season.

Visiting players and manager Arne Slot were unhappy that Bergvall was on the field to score what proved to be the winning goal after he escaped collecting a second yellow card for a foul on Kostas Tsimikas moments earlier. Indeed, Tsimikas was off the field, waiting to come back on having received treatment following Bergvall’s tackle, when the Sweden midfielder tucked home his finish.

Slot earned a yellow card himself for his protests, though he shook Attwell’s hand after the final whistle.

“It was quite obvious it was going to be a second yellow,” Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk said. “A minute later he scores the winner.

“He (Attwell) made a mistake, in my opinion.”

It was a busy end to the match for Attwell, who took centre stage after there was a video review following Solanke’s strike in the 76th minute. After being notified that Solanke was offside, Attwell used the public address system to declare the goal had been ruled out, in an NFL-style announcement.

The League Cup semifinals were chosen to pilot a process in England that has been widely used in other sports, and in soccer at the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in 2023 and other FIFA events.

Here’s the match report from the second leg of the other semi-final, played yesterday…

Newcastle United reached a second League Cup final in three seasons as they overwhelmed Arsenal 2-0 at a feverish St James’ Park on Wednesday to complete a crushing 4-0 aggregate win.

Moments after Arsenal’s Martin Odegaard wasted a chance to halve the deficit, Jacob Murphy tucked away a rebound in the 19th minute after Alexander Isak’s shot hit the woodwork.

Arsenal, surprisingly beaten 2-0 at home in the first leg, suffered another off-night and their fate was sealed when Anthony Gordon punished a defensive error in the 52nd minute to put the hosts in cruise control.

Newcastle, who have not won a major trophy since 1955, will play either Liverpool or Tottenham Hotspur in the Wembley final next month when they hope to go one better than 2023 when they lost in the final to Manchester United.

Of the 32 previous occasions that a team has lost the first leg of a League Cup semi-final by two goals or more, only once has a team recovered the deficit to reach the final.

Based on the evidence of their crushing 5-1 victory over Manchester City on Sunday, it seemed entirely feasible that Arsenal might buck that trend and ruin the Geordie party.

In the end it was a night of unbridled joy on Tyneside as the club’s long-suffering fans scent another shot at silverware.

The outcome of the tie was probably decided just before the midway point of the first half.

Had Arsenal skipper Odegaard taken a golden opportunity instead of slicing a shot hurriedly against the outside of the post, Newcastle might have been consumed by anxiety, especially as they had already had an Isak effort ruled out by VAR for the tightest of offside decisions.

A minute after Odegaard’s glaring miss, the marauding Isak went through on goal again and his curling shot ricocheted off the inside of the post to Murphy who stayed ice cool to steer the rebound home from a tight angle.

Arsenal suffered a further setback when Gabriel Martinelli left the pitch with a hamstring injury before halftime. With fellow forwards Gabriel Jesus and Bukayo Saka also injured, that moment could yet have wider significance for Arsenal’s season.

Mikel Arteta’s side never really looked comfortable and their evening was to get even worse early in the second half.

The unusually flustered William Saliba was lucky that Gordon failed to score from distance after dispossessing him and catching keeper David Raya way off his line.

But Arsenal failed to heed the warning and minutes later Raya’s casual pass out was nicked by Gordon who then dispatched a first-time shot past the Spanish keeper and inside the post.

With the pre-match tension lifted, Newcastle were able to cruise through the rest of the game against an Arsenal side who will now have to dust themselves down and focus on trying to chase down Liverpool in the Premier League title race.