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Tottenham Hotspur Match Reports
Tottenham Hotspur 4-3 Manchester United: Son olimpico powers Spurs to League Cup semifinals
WOWWWWWWW
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It was shaping up to be a comfortable win for Tottenham Hotspur in their League Cup quarterfinal match against Manchester United. It ended up anything but. Spurs took a 3-0 lead into midway through the second half thanks to a brace from Dominic Solanke and on from Dejan Kulusevski, but two inexplicable goalkeeping errors from Fraser Forster gifted United two second half goals in seven minutes from substitutes Joshua Zirkzee and Amad Diallo. Tottenham were forced to endure an extremely nervous last quarter of an hour at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
And then all hell broke loose.
In the 88th minute, Son Heung-Min took a corner kick and put the gol-danged ball directly in the net, an Olimpico goal for the ages to put Spurs up 4-2. Then deep into stoppage time, Jonny Evans fired in a late header to make the score 4-3. It looked for a split second like United might actually find a way to level the score, but Spurs were able to waste enough time late take the team to the final whistle. The final score was Tottenham 4-3 United; Spurs will find out their semifinal opponent later tonight
Match Reactions:
What a stupid match.
This match had EVERYTHING: a Solanke brace, stupid goalkeeping, questionable calls that couldn’t be reviewed because there was no VAR, a FREAKIN’ OLIMPICO GOAL, a Sergio Reguilon human victory cigar appearance, and a goal from the shambling corpse of Jonny Evans. Wild stuff.
Final xG: Tottenham 0.68 - 2.38 United. That’s pretty LOL but also I feel that’s skewed by the two HUGE chances Spurs handed to them on a platter.
I had just got done praising Fraser Forster for making a big save when he plays a hospital ball out of the back and gifts United a goal, then gives away another one for being lackadaisical with the ball at his feet. He’s been good lately but that were just awful, awful mistakes to make from an experienced keeper, and this was EXACTLY why I’ve been holding my breath every match.
Honestly, the Forster stuff really overshadows the fact that Spurs played pretty well! They looked good going forward, were defending the transition quite capably. Most of the shots they were allowing were low xG and were off target. But of course the nerves kicked in after Spurs’ keeper threw two goals into his own net.
We only got one replay of Solanke’s first goal, but it did look like he was onside when Porro took his blocked shot. Not that it matters — no VAR this round, so the official’s original call was always going to stand.
Spurs’ second goal was just a nice, classic Ange-Ball cutback goal. Maddison with an overlap run, a cutback that got a lucky deflection off a United defender, and a good open shot from Deki.
Plenty of Levy Out chants in the stands today, but at least they weren’t singing about sacking Ange. That’s an improvement?
Sarr’s yellow means he’s suspended from the semifinal for yellow card accumulation.
Spurs’ play out of the back was pretty bad at times — lots of poor passing in the face of a rather mediocre United press — but thankfully United’s attackers were worse.
Spence had another very nice match, putting in the pass that set up Solanke and looking bright going forward. If you want to be picky there were times where he was occupying the inverted spaces when he could, but it’s really hard to be too critical about this match. He was pretty great.
Son Heung-Min is still pretty great at football. What a goal! I really really wonder if this had happened in a Premier League match if VAR would’ve called a foul on Bergvall — it looked like there was an argument for a foul. Maybe not a strong one, but you never really know when VAR gets involved and whether that would be considered a clear and obvious error. On the other hand, Vicario had been manhandled in the box all season. Whatever, it counted, and it ruled.
Loved that hug between Ange and Amorim after the final whistle. “Did we just become best friends?” “YEP!”
Spurs will find out their semifinal opponent later tonight. (Brace yourselves, it will be Arsenal.)