Tottenham Hotspur have said they are ‘disgusted’ with the racial abuse aimed towards Italian left-back Destiny Udogie, following the side’s controversial 2-1 victory over Liverpool at the weekend.
Both Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham and Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool went into their Premier League clash on Saturday having remained unbeaten so far into their respective 2023/2024 campaigns.
Fans looked forward to an action-packed matchup between the two sides, and (neutrals at least) were not left disappointed, with an afternoon of drama and controversy awaiting them.
Klopp’s afternoon took a turn for the worse just 26 minutes in, when Curtis Jones mistimed a challenge on Yves Bissouma. Jones’ foot slipped over the ball as he stabbed towards it, leaving the full force of his studs plowing into Bissouma’s shin.
The challenge was initially given a yellow card by referee Simon Hooper. However, with Bissouma still on the ground in pain, Hooper was asked by his VAR to review the challenge again, resulting in Jones being shown red and leaving Liverpool a man down with over an hour left to play.
Liverpool looked to have turned their own luck around when, just minutes later, Luis Diaz found the back of the net to take them 1-0 up at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Klopp’s men were once again caught on the wrong side of VAR, with a controversial offside decision ruling out their opener.
In Klopp & Co’s defence – the PGMOL have since stated that they made a significant human error in regards to the decision to disallow Diaz’s goal.
Tottenham smelled blood in the water and took the lead via Son Heung-Min less than 10 minutes later, with the afternoon looking to run away from the travelling side.
Despite this, they managed to equalise just another 10 minuutes later, with Cody Gakpo finding the back of the net in stoppage time of the first half – injuring himself in the process. Gakpo immediately left the pitch to be replaced by Diogo Jota.
For a solid 20-minute period, Jurgen Klopp’s side looked as if they may hang on to a point from this fixture, but luck was not on their side on this occasion.
Gakpo’s replacement, Jota, earned 2 yellow cards within the space of a minute, the first being handed to him 68 minutes into play. He had been asked to leave the pitch before the 70-minute mark, making Liverpool’s job of staying afloat all that much harder.
The away side defended admirably, despite their now quite large numerical disadvantage, but a curse of bad luck would strike again when Joel Matip’s clearance of an incoming cross scorched its way into the roof of Alisson Becker’s net in the 6th minute of 8 added on.
This ended any hope of Klopp’s 9-man side finding their way back to taking points home on what ended up being a miserable afternoon for the travelling side.
The topic of Diaz’s offside and Jones‘ red card have been the forefront of discussion following what Liverpool would see as an unfair afternoon in the office, but sadly frustrations have also been taken out on Tottenham’s players following the matchup on Saturday.
Racist abuse aimed at Tottenham Hotspur’s Destiny Udogie
It has been reported that Tottenham left-back Destiny Udogie, who played the full 90 minutes in their fixture against Liverpool, has been the target of multiple racially abusive messages on the comments section of an image he posted to his Instagram account.
Tottenham have released a statement via their X account, saying that they are ‘disgusted’ with the abuse aimed at Udogie, and that they intend to take action against anybody found responsible.
We are disgusted at the racist messages directed towards Destiny Udogie on social media following Saturday’s game against Liverpool.
We will work with the Premier League and, where possible, take action against any individual we are able to identify.
We stand with you… pic.twitter.com/aJxcnelfZX
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) October 2, 2023
The club statement went on to say “We will work with the Premier League and, where possible, take action against any individual we are able to identify. We stand with you Destiny.”
Regardless of the controversies on pitch during Saturday’s clash, there is no room for racism in football, and we stand with Tottenham Hotspur in supporting Destiny Udogie against such poor fan behaviour.
