Tottenham Hotspur 4-3 Manchester United: Son Olimpico leads Spurs to the semi-finals of the League Cup

It looked to be a comfortable win for Tottenham Hotspur in their League Cup quarter-final match against Manchester United. It ended up being anything but. Midway through the second half, Spurs took a 3-0 lead thanks to a brace from Dominic Solanke and Dejan Kulusevski, but two inexplicable goalkeeping errors from Fraser Forster gave United two second-half goals from substitutes Joshua Zirkzee and Amad Diallo. Tottenham had to endure an extremely nervous situation in the 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 fired the ball straight into the net, an Olimpico goal for the ages that gave Spurs a 4-2 lead. Then, deep into stoppage time, Jonny Evans scored a late header to make it 4-3. For a split second it looked like United might actually find a way to level the score, but Spurs were able to waste enough time late on to carry the team through to the final whistle. The final result was Tottenham 4-3 United; Spurs will find out their semi-final opponent later this evening

Match Reactions:

• What a stupid game.
• This game had EVERYTHING: a brace from Solanke, stupid goaltending, questionable decisions that couldn’t be reviewed because there was no video referee, an INSANE OLIMPICO GOAL, the appearance of a human victory cigarette from Sergio Reguilon and a goal from the shuffling one Body of Jonny Evans. Wild stuff.
• Final xG: Tottenham 0.68 – 2.38 United. That’s pretty cool, but I also feel like that’s distorted by the two HUGE chances the Spurs handed them on a platter.
• I had just finished praising Fraser Forster for his great save when he played a hospital ball out of defense and gifted United a goal, but then gave away another one because he was careless with the ball at his feet. He’s been good lately, but these were just terrible mistakes from a veteran goalie, and that was EXACTLY why I was holding my breath every game.
• Honestly, the Forster stuff really overshadows the fact that Spurs played pretty well! They made a good impression going forward and defended the transition quite skillfully. Most of the shots they allowed had low xG and missed the target. But of course the nerves came to the fore after the Spurs goalkeeper put two goals into his own net.
• We only got a replay of Solanke’s first goal, but it looked like he was onside when Porro made his blocked shot. Not that it matters – there was no VAR in this round, so the official’s original decision always stood.
• Spurs’ second goal was just a beautiful, classic Ange ball cutback goal. Maddison with an overlap run, a cutback that was happily deflected by a United defender and a good open shot from Deki.
• There were a lot of Levy-Out chants in the stands today, but at least there wasn’t any singing about Ange’s sacking. Is that an improvement?
• Sarr’s yellow card means he is suspended for the semi-finals due to accumulating yellow cards.
• Spurs’ defensive play was pretty poor at times – lots of poor passes in the face of a rather mediocre United pressing – but fortunately United’s attackers were worse.
• Spence had another very nice game, playing the pass that set up Solanke and looking brilliant going forward. If you want to be picky, there were times where he occupied the flipped spaces even though he could, but it’s really hard to be too critical in this game. He was pretty awesome.
• Son Heung-Min is still pretty good at football. What a goal! I really wonder if this would have happened in a Premier League game if the VAR had called a foul on Bergvall – it looked like there was an argument for a foul. Maybe not a big mistake, but you never really know when the VAR will intervene and whether it will be seen as a clear and obvious mistake. On the other hand, Vicario has been mistreated in the penalty area all season. Whatever, it counted and it ruled.
• I loved the hug between Ange and Amorim after the final whistle. “Did we just become best friends?” “YES!”
• Spurs will find out their semi-final opponent later this evening. (Get ready, it will be Arsenal.)