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With one nod of his head, Peter Crouch wiped away the memory of two
previous headers that hit the post and the keeper and propelled
Tottenham Hotspur into the Champions League for the first time in the
club's history. But he was not the only hero on the night, when
everyone played their part in the win over Manchester City that kept
them out of reach in fifth with a game still to play.
From the start, with City bringing out the
cliched tenor to sing rousing football songs to try and get the home
crowd fired up, it was obvious that the City team would be going all out
to win, needing the three points here to have a good chance of finishing
fourth.
To be fair, the atmosphere was electric
for the teams when they emerged from the tunnel. City started like
possessed men and kept Spurs pinned back in their own last third for a
lot of the first half. Tevez was expending so much energy, he must
have had a carbon footprint the size of a carbon Bigfoot. He
wanted the ball everywhere on the pitch, chased down Spurs player son
the ball, ran at the defence and was back in midfield trying to get
possession back. Spurs were not able to play the way they wanted,
with City closing down the man on the ball and marking tight the player
who might receive it.
It looked a bit ominous, as the first
time Bellamy got to run at Kaboul, he cut inside the defender and played
a short ball to Barry inside the box, but he couldn't sort his feet out
and hit a shot with his wrong foot that went over the bar. Younes
probably learned enough from that one incident to make sure the Welshman
did not pass again and with five minutes gone a tackle by the Frenchman
left Bellamy needing medical attention. Tevez had other ideas and
a run into the left side of the penalty area found Benny on the wrong
side of the pitch and on the wrong side of the Argentinian, making a
half-hearted tackle with his wrong foot, which could have gone wrong,
but Heurelho Gomes was out quickly to block the shot and the ball
bounced off BAE's head and was hacked away.
However, with virtually the first attack
Tottenham had they came close to opening the scoring, as Bale's 18th
minute right wing free-kick cleared everyone except Peter Crouch at the
far post and his header crashed against the post with Kompany far too
interested in watching the Spurs striker rather than the ball.
Three minutes later and a corner from the same side, saw Bale swing the
ball into the six yard box, where Ledley King rose highest to head home
past emergency loan keeper Marton Fulop and a player on the line.
However, celebrations were cut very short, as referee Bennett ruled it
out for an arm placed on Barry's back by the Tottenham skipper.
With Spurs being pushed back again, a
27th minute Bellamy corner was cleared, but only to Adam Johnson 25
yards out and he pushed the ball out of his feet enough to strike a shot
that brought a very good diving save from Gomes, who pushed it wide of
the goal with good hands. Meanwhile, Kaboul was finishing his job
on Bellamy, but earned an early yellow card for it, although it did mean
that the former West Ham, Norwich City, Newcastle United, Liverpool and
so on and so on winger feared going near our right back again. He
had already had a shouting match with Adebayour, which seemed to affect
both players adversely.
With Barry getting away down the left, he
played a waist high ball across the penalty area and as Johnson went in
for it, but Gareth was tracking back to mark him. Unfortunately,
it came of Bale's old feller and was heading for the bottom corner,
until Gomes reacted swiftly to produce a super save by pushing the ball
wide again to deny City a 34th minute goal.
But as the game swung the other way,
Spurs went close once more, with Aaron Lennon delivering a good cross to
the far post after a period of possession football by Spurs, where
Crouch headed back for Bale to take a shot with the ball in the air, but
he kept it down and it whizzed a foot wide of the post with Fulop
helpless with seven minutes to the break. then a couple of minutes
later, a bit of good fortune could have seen Spurs take the lead when
Crouch closed down Fulop as he was about to clear and he blocked the
ball, only for it to favour the former Tottenham keeper by bouncing back
towards his own penalty area.
Toure was being given a tough time in his
normal position, but when he came forward for corners, he got more joy,
winning three set pieces in the air. Unfortunately for him, he
could only get the last one on target, but with no power in it to
trouble Gomes, while he put the two easier efforts off target when he
had free headers.
There was one more chance in the half,
when Tevez ran at the left side of the Spurs defence and King shepherded
him wide and the little forward hit a shot into the side-netting instead
of pulling the ball across, which might have caused more danger to
Tottenham. The whistle for the break came as a relief, as
Tottenham were halfway towards their aim, but while it remained 0-0,
there was always the chance that City might get the goal they so dearly
sought.
With the Spurs section buoyant and loud
in their singing, City's fans had to be whipped up again and produced a
few songs, but for much of the second half, they came out second best to
the Spurs vocal support, much like their team came out second best to
the Spurs team.
It was a bit surprising that they seemed
to go into their shell and similarly to the game at the Lane, they
looked like they were a bunch of individuals who hadn't played much
together before. It made Tottenham's task easier and they passed
the ball better after the interval, although there were some times they
tried to find Crouch's head with wayward passes.
An early opportunity to City saw
Johnson's cross elude everyone and Barry latch onto it at the far post,
getting something on the ball to get it past Gomes, but the ever
reliable Michael Dawson was there to clear from behind his keeper.
Within five minutes of the restart, Spurs had started to find their
range, with Assou-Ekotto and Lennon hitting shots on goal, albeit off
target, then in the 55th minute, they finally got on on goal. Bale
played the ball through for Jermain Defoe to get on the end of and with
his first clear chance, he struck a shot form just inside the area with
the outside of his right foot and as it was going to Fulop's left, he
plunged low to turn the ball away for a corner with a fine finger-tip
stop.
The game then became a bit scrappy for
ten minutes, with Barry going off with an ankle problem to be replaced
by Vieira, who was quite ineffectual and Hud getting booked and being
lucky not to be sent off. He escaped from Vieira, de Jong and
another City player, who all dived in on him, catching him late, but Tom
stamped his foot back, which might have been a red card in another
referee's book. He then instinctively handled the ball as it flew
past him in midfield and was let off with a telling off rather than a
sending off. A similar, but harsher, handball earned Benoit a
yellow card.
When the bookings were over (and the ref
let City's players off lightly and gave them some soft free-kicks), it
was left to Tottenham to control the rest of the game, as City ran out
of steam and ideas. Dawson looped a cleared header onto the top of
the goal, then, with twenty minutes to go, Assou-Ekotto got away on the
left and slid a ball through the corridor of uncertainty, leaving Defoe
and Crouch both agonisingly too far away from sliding the ball into the
net, with keeper and defenders wary of getting the wrong touch on it.
77 minutes and the chance that should
have won the match for Tottenham came along. Bale had been working
the left wing, but had not been getting as telling crosses in as he had
been doing in recent matches, but one cross picked out a Spurs head in
the six yard box and it was Crouch's. he headed the ball down, but
into the centre of the goal, where Fulop was on his backside, but
managed to kick the ball away. It looked as though that might have
been the big chance Spurs had to take and that missed chances might come
back to haunt them again.
However, City hadn't banked on Ledley
King playing out of his skin. His third appearance in eleven days
alongside the resolute Michael Dawson, Ledley showed just why he is so
important to Tottenham. When Tevez lined up a shot from distance,
it seemed to carry enough power that might have troubled the Tottenham
keeper, but Ledley (for the second time in the game) put his head in the
way to take the ball away from goal.
It proved to be the last shot that the
home side had, as Spurs began to move the ball better and City lost the
tracking of the forward runners. Shortly after Pavylucheno came on
for Defoe a cross from the left by Bale cleared everyone and was played
right to Kaboul. Faced with Bellamy, he ran at the winger and the
feeble challenge failed to prevent Younes reaching the dead ball line.
From just on the edge of the box, he let fly with a fierce cross-shot
that flicked off Wayne Bridge and forced Fulop to react to at his near
post. He was only able to push the ball up into the air and Crouch
got around a defender and to the ball before Kompany's attempted
overhead kick to nod it high into the net and launch a frenetic mass of
Spurs fans celebrating behind that goal. The sections either side
with City fans in was as still as some of their defenders had been,
while the leaping Spurs fans replicated Crouch's reaction to give
Tottenham the all-important goal they needed with just eight minutes
left.
We have seen Spurs stuff it up from this
sort of position before, but the defence stood firm ,the midfield worked
the ball well and kept hold of it and the forwards began to pull the
City back four around. Crouch went through on the left and then
produced a pass out to their right, where Pav ran in and shot on goal,
but once more Fulop dived to push the ball off for a corner. Two
short corners later, the clock had been run down sufficiently to allow
Steve Bennett to blow the final whistle when the ball was pumped into
midfield and the scenes of joy was bitterly counter-pointed by the
desolation on the faces of the Manchester City players and fans.
With the Spurs players joyously hugging
anyone in Spurs white and blue that moved, the stadium that had started
emptying even before the goal, was rapidly becoming a light blue sea of
empty seats. No lap of honour for the home team and no happy
ending for once for their fans.
But for Tottenham, a new era beckons.
Champions League football for the first
time and with a qualifier against a potentially tough side to come,
there is no guarantees in that competition. But then there never
is with Tottenham. That is why supporting them can feel so good
sometimes.
ted maul |
Manchester
City
(Away)
