When the goals flew in during bonkers clash as Spurs knock Man City out of Champions League on record breaking night
MANCHESTER CITY and Tottenham served up one of the greatest Champions League matches ever last night with a SEVEN goal thriller. The first eleven-minutes summed up the dramatic clash of twist and turns, with four goals scored before everyone had taken their seat. It took just three-minute 51-seconds for City to break the deadlock, the […]
MANCHESTER CITY and Tottenham served up one of the greatest Champions League matches ever last night with a SEVEN goal thriller.
The first eleven-minutes summed up the dramatic clash of twist and turns, with four goals scored before everyone had taken their seat.
It took just three-minute 51-seconds for City to break the deadlock, the incredible Raheem Sterling curling in from the edge of the box.
But Spurs turned it around with Son beating Ederson on six-minutes 52-seconds and nine-minutes two-seconds to take the lead.
Bernardo Silva then equalised on 10-minutes 43-seconds, breaking the record for the quickest four goals in a match in Champions League history.
We had to wait another ten-minutes for the back of the net to ripple again, Sterling scoring on 20-minutes 32 seconds.
Sergio Aguero thought it had won it to make it 4-2 on 58-minutes 23-seconds, but sub Fernando Llorente’s 73rd-minute goal saw Spurs through.
It now goes down as the greatest night of their lives.
Breathe it and believe it Tottenham fans because this really happened.
They are Champions League semi-finalists, off to play Ajax after this truly astonishing quarter-final.
Spurs played hokey-cokey football – in, out, in, out, then very much in – during this extraordinary game.
The stands shook, erupting after 92 intoxicating minutes because Manchester City believed Raheem Sterling’s finish had taken them through.
Fans streamed down stairwells to get as close as they could to their matchwinner.
Pep thought he had done it, taking off down the touchline to celebrate their place in the last four.
Spurs players fell to the floor like dead ants, spark out on their backs after this most extraordinary effort.
It was impossible not to get caught up in it, to think that Sterling’s finish had set up the purists’ dream of a Total Football semi-final with Ajax.
Instead it turned into Total Despair.
Suddenly, silence. Hang on. Uh, oh: VAR.
Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir had spotted something – an offside, perhaps – in the build-up.
Moments later it was bedlam, with Tottenham fans seeming to get the jump on the rest of the stadium.
Sergio Aguero, the man who made it 4-2 after just 59 mental minutes, was fractionally offside when he took possession.
Nobody knew where to look.
In the stands Spurs fans were going nuts, celebrating a disallowed goal with even more vigour than Fernando Llorente’s 73rd minute saviour.
“Oh lord, VAR,” they sang, soaking it all up when Spurs players steamed over to them after five minutes’ injury time.
Technology had spared them when Llorente, on as a 41st minute substitute, made it 4-3.
In the nuclear fall out that follows, spare a thought for Kevin de Bruyne because the best player on the pitch set up three and still ended up on the losing team.
Tottenham are through, daring to do and all that because Llorente’s goal stood after a prolonged VAR check.
Kieran Trippier’s corner rolled down his body – probably, possibly, maybe – skimming off his arm along the way.
It was enough to divert it beyond Ederson, to make the score 4-3 and take Spurs through on away goals.
What happened before all that takes some telling.
In years to come this ridiculous Dog&Duck scoreline will be a reminder of one of the most compelling games in the history of the sport.
To under-estimate Tottenham’s resilience, to think these gladiators would go down as gallant losers at 4-2 was a grave mistake.
They are Spursy no more.
The stakes were so high the players forgot, ignored, or simply could not cope with a game as intense and as demanding as this.
These two go again in the Premier League on Saturday and they will be so wiped out you can be sure it will end 0-0.
This was a basketball match in a basket-case of a game.
There was so much passion, so much fervour that it was impossible to keep track of, to recalculate every time the ball hit the back of the net.
City were level on aggregate after four minutes, rewarded for their fast, aggressive approach.
De Bruyne engineered it, switching play to the left and into the path of the onrushing Sterling.
The goal mimicked Messi’s first against Manchester United, dropping his shoulder, cutting in and then aiming for the inside of Hugo Lloris’s post.
What an electrifying start.
Spurs responded when Heung-Min Son, scorer of the winner at the new stadium last week, levelled.
Three minutes later, he had them in front.
Laporte was caught woefully out of position as Poch’s players moved through midfield at speed.
Son scored again, another peach of a goal that pinged off his right boot and beyond Ederson’s reach.
City needed three.
They made immediate inroads, levelling when Danny Rose deflected Bernardo’s effort beyond Lloris.
Then came another City goal, with
Sterling finishing off another jaw-dropping move to make it 3-3 on aggregate just 21 minutes in. Ridiculous.
His buddy de Bruyne had the wit to take a short free-kick, arcing an inch-perfect cross around the back of the Spurs defence and into the path of Sterling.
The finish was difficult, with the ball arriving at pace and with the demand for a first time finish.
Sterling was equal to it.
On nights as gripping as this, you cannot get enough of the game.
It is a drug: seducing you, intoxicating you, taking hold of you for 90 hysterical minutes.
Getting the next fix is the problem.
De Bruyne served it up, laying off the chance for Aguero to make it 4-2 City after 59 minutes.
Aguero timed his run, eluding markers and waiting for De Bruyne to release him down the right.
His finish was another belter, rifled beyond Lloris with power, with accuracy, with conviction.
City seemed to think they were done.
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That was until Llorente turned it in Tottenham’s favour with 17 minutes left.
In the scenes that followed, the celebrations in Tottenham’s dressing room could be heard down the empty Etihad corridors.
After reaching a Champions League semi-final, Spurs are the big noise in European football now.
