Many thanks to Declan Mulcahy for his report:-
Wednesday 26 February 2025, 7:30pm
Premier League
Tottenham Hotspur (0) 0 Manchester City (1) 1
Scorer:-
Haaland, 12
Tottenham Hotspur (4-3-3):
1 G Vicario; 23 Pedro Porro, 14 A Gray, 4 K Danso, 13 D Udogie (24 D
Spence 67); 15 L Bergvall, 30 R Bentancur (29 P Sarr 67), 10 J
Maddison (c) (16 T Werner 82); 22 B Johnson, 11 M Tel (21 D Kulusevski
66), 15 W Odobert (7 H-M Son 67)
Subs not used: 31 A. Kinsky, 3 S Reguilon, 8 Y Bissouma, 44 D Scarlett
Booked: Bentancur (31 foul on Nunes), Maddison (57 foul on Savinho),
Sarr (87 foul on Foden)
Captain's Armband: Maddison (Son 67)
Manchester City (4-2-3-1): Pep Guardiola
31 Ederson; 27 M Nunes, 45 A Khusanov, 3 R Dias (c), 24 J Gvardiol; 8
M Kovacic (19 I Gundogan 94), 14 N Gonzalez (20 Bernardo Silva 74); 26
Savinho (87 J McAtee 90); 7 O Marmoush (47 P Foden 74), 11 J Doku (10
J Grealish 93); 9 E Haaland
Subs not used: 18 S Ortega, 6 N Ake, 82 R Lewis, 17 K De Bruyne
No bookings
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Attendance: 60,820
Referee: Jarred Gillett. Assistants: Ian Hussin, Darren Cann. Fourth
official: Rob Jones. VAR: Graham Scott. Assistant VAR: Sian Massey-Ellis.
Haaland scores the only goal in a game of missed chances
Erling Haaland returned from injury to score the goal which gave
Manchester City victory. Spurs will rue missing a couple of good
chances but City will counter that they missed even more scoring
opportunities.
Ange Postecoglou rested three players from the weekend Djed Spence,
Dejan Kulusevski and Heung-min Son and replaced them with Destiny
Udogie, James Maddison and Wilson Odobert. Timo Werner replaced Mikey
Moore among the substitutes. Unless Moore was injured it was strange
to replace a player with a bright future with someone whose days are
numbered. This was the second youngest team that Spurs have fielded in
the Premier League with an average age of 23 years and 243 days old
and the youngest chosen by Postecoglou. The youngest team was that in
September 1992 against Sheffield Wednesday (23y 97d).
Pep Guardiola made four changes from the Manchester City side which
was outplayed at home by Liverpool at the weekend. Erling Haaland
returned from injury and Matheus Nunes, Ruben Dias and Matteo Kovacic
were all elevated from substitutes to starters while Rico Lewis,
Nathan Ake, Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden dropped to the bench.
At the weekend Ipswich Town dominated the first ten minutes but
tonight Manchester City dominated the entire first half.
Beginning in the sixth minute City had three chances in three minutes.
Savinho teed up Haaland but he shot straight at Guglielmo Vicario.
Then Haaland had the ball in the box and Vicario went to ground at his
feet to deny him an opportunity. Udogie then cut out a City attack
which had Guardiola raising his arms in frustration.
Spurs' first foray into the City box saw Porro send a long ball towards
Maddison but Ederson reached it first.
Unfortunately City counter-attacked instantly. Doku made a run down
the left before crossing the ball. Haaland scored with a shot. Udogie
was the closest to him but was unable to intervene. Haaland has now
scored 10 at home and 10 away in three Premier League seasons. The
only other player to achieve this feat is Harry Kane.
Doku made a good run into the box and the running parallel to the goal
had a shot which Vicario saved. He then crossed from the left to
Savinho. The latter was totally unmarked and should have doubled
City's lead but his effort hit the ground and went over the bar. It
was a bad miss.
Doku who was enjoying a lot of freedom down the left again provided
Haaland with an opportunity by Vicario made a fine save. Danso blocked
an effort by Savinho.
Bentancur had earlier been booked for a tackle on Nunes. But ten
minutes later City were guilty of two quite robust tackles Nunes on
Udogie and Kovacic on Bentancur but referee Gillett didn't issue a
card in either case.
Spurs finally had a couple of attempts towards the end of the half.
Maddison sent a curling free kick into the box but it was punched out
by Ederson. Danso produced a header towards the corner of the goal
from a Porro free kick but Ederson pushed it away for a corner.
City dominated the first half. They had 15 touches in the Spurs box,
four shots on target and an xG (expected goals) of 1.91. So City were
creating good chances. Spurs meanwhile had 6 touches in the City box,
two shots of goal and an xG of 0.09.
There were no changes at the break. Given City's dominance it was
perhaps surprising that Postecoglou didn't alter anything at that point.
Odobert made a run into the City box shortly after the break. He and
Kovacic had a coming together but it didn't merit a penalty.
Savinho was almost through but was blocked by Udogie. Another shot by
the same player deflected off Danso.
Spurs then started to dominate. Porro sent a cross from the right
across the City goal but Odobert just couldn't reach it. Ederson saved
a Danso header from a free kick. In between Maddison was booked for
stopping Savinho from starting a counter-attack.
Maddison set Odobert up for a shot but it was palmed out by Ederson
for a corner. In quick succession a Bentancur header from a corner was
saved as was a shot from Porro. Then Udogie robbed Savinho and set up
Tel but his shot was blocked.
Postecoglou had been waiting for a break in play to make
substitutions. He had lined up three but after the wait increased it
to four. Spence, Sarr, Kulusevski and Son replaced Udogie, Bentancur,
Tel and Odobert.
Johnson headed over from a Maddison corner and Sarr had a shot blocked.
Guardiola made his first changes with Bernardo Silva and Foden
replacing Gonzalez and Marmoush.
Spurs had a great opportunity to equalise when Johnson crossed from
the right and Ederson made a fine save from Son. It was a case of deja
vu since in the 86th minute of the corresponding fixture last year in
May 2024 Son had an opportunity to level the score at 1-1 but
substitute goalkeeper Stefan Ortega made a brilliant save.
There was a coming together between Danso and Doku where the former
could have handled the ball but the decision was a free kick in favour
of the Spurs man.
Two minutes into time added on Archie Gray made a goal saving tackle.
In the third of the four minutes added on Haaland bulldozed his way
into the Spurs box with the ball and went past a couple of Spurs
players before putting the ball into the net. The City players
celebrated while their Spurs counterparts appealed for a handball.
There was a lengthy pause while the video footage was assessed. There
was a coming together between Haaland and Danso in which one or both
of the players could have handled the ball.
A decision was reached and communicated to Mr. Gillett. What hadn't
been clear was that he blew the whistle the moment the goal was scored
because he considered that Haaland had handled the ball. VAR decided
there wasn't sufficient evidence to change his decision.
The time added on was extended to nine minutes because of the delay in
adjudicating the goal attempt. In a final Spurs attack Porro made a
run on the right and crossed to Son. He didn't connect well with the
ball but with a combination of the back of his head and his back
looped the ball to Sarr on his left. Sarr managed to head the ball
over the bar when it would have been easier to score. Perhaps he
wasn't expecting to receive the strange pass from Son.
After the final whistle Son was observed to be having an intense
conversation with referee Jarred Gillett. The "Time for a Change"
banner was also in evidence being held up close to the pitch.
Manchester City have lost 14 of 27 matches since Spurs eliminated them
from the Carabao Cup so this was an opportunity for Spurs. It didn't
happen and thus ended Spurs attempt to be the first team ever to
complete three wins in a season over both Manchester City and
Manchester United. Given that it has never happened before perhaps it
was too much to hope for.
Spurs last achieved more than two wins in a season against City in a
quadruple in 1992-93. The fourth match on 7 March 1993 when Spurs won
4-2 is still remembered for a series of incidents which took place.
Nayim scored in the 87th minute to complete a hat-trick and put Spurs
4-1 ahead. Turner then put the ball in the net for a potential fifth
goal but it was disallowed after a very late flag was raised. Phelan
then reduced the deficit to 4-2.
This was the cue for City supporters to invade the pitch. It took
mounted police and police with dogs 13 minutes to clear the pitch.
When play resumed Spurs were awarded a penalty when Curle fouled
Turner. Teddy Sheringham deliberately missed the penalty to avoid
provoking further crowd trouble and the match ended with Spurs winning
4-2. City were given a suspended sentence of a £50,000 fine and a
match played behind closed doors.
This was the fourth time Spurs have lost and failed to score in a home
match under Ange Postecoglou, with three of those being defeats to
Manchester City (0-1 in January 2024, 0-2 in May 2024 and 0-1
tonight). The fourth was against Arsenal earlier this season.
As a result of this defeat Spurs drop to 13th position in the table as
Crystal Palace won yesterday. The minimum goal should be to finish in
the top half of the table. It won't be easy as Spurs are nine points
behind 10th place with eleven games to play.
Spurs have the weekend off while the FA Cup fifth round takes place.
The next match is in eight days time away to AZ Alkmaar in the Europa
League.
. Squad numbers,appearances,bookings & goalscorers
. Read the preview for this game.
. All the Spurs Stats you could hope for here! THFC6061 Sports Stats
