Tottenham vs Man City LIVE: FA Cup result and reaction as Nathan Ake scores late winning goal
Tottenham 0-1 Man City: Nathan Ake’s late winner sent City into the fifth round
Tottenham Hotspur host Manchester City in a barnstorming clash for the FA Cup fourth round with the north London outfit hoping to knock the current holders out of the competition.
Spurs defeated Burnley 1-0 in the previous round, thanks to a 78th minute goal from Pedro Porro, to set up the clash with Pep Guardiola’s men. Though Postecoglou will be without the services of Son Heung-Min who is off playing in the Asia Cup, Tottenham could be boosted by the returns of James Maddison, who has been missing since November with an ankle injury, and defenders Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero.
Another benefit for Spurs is that Guardiola still cannot call on Erling Haaland who is recovering from injury. Not that his absence is slowing down the FA Cup holders. They are on a nine-game unbeaten run with eight wins and one draw during that time. City have scored eight goals in their last two outings and have Kevin De Bruyne back fit and firing.
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Tottenham vs Man City
Two changes for Man City. They’ve had plenty of time off during this winter break so should be fresh.
Pep Guardiola brings Stefan Ortega in as City’s cup goalkeeper in place of Ederson, while Oscar Bobb comes in for Jeremy Doku.
Tottenham vs Man City
Pep Guardiola‘s defending champions reached this stage with a comprehensive 5-0 victory over Huddersfield Town at the Etihad Stadium earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Spurs are in the last 32 thanks to a 1-0 home defeat of Burnley where Pedro Porro scored the only goal of the game.
Tottenham vs Man City
Tonight’s fixture is Manchester City’s 81st match at this stage of the FA Cup. Of the previous 80 in this historic competition, they have won 45, lost 14 and drawn 21.
Will they add another victory, and a first at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, to their tally tonight?
Ange Postecoglou pleased to see Cristian Romero ‘step up’ and lead by example
Ange Postecoglou has praised Tottenham vice-captain Cristian Romero for stepping up in Son Heung-min’s absence.
Spurs are without current skipper Son due to his international commitments with South Korea and Romero is set to wear the armband again in Friday’s FA Cup tie with Manchester City.
Romero was captain for the 2-2 draw at Manchester United two weeks ago and Postecoglou talked up his growing leadership qualities.
Ange Postecoglou pleased to see Cristian Romero ‘step up’ and lead by example
The Argentinian is set to captain Tottenham in Friday’s FA Cup clash with Manchester City.
Maddison on the bench but could play crucial part
Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou believes James Maddison’s return from injury is a welcome boost to his side, but says they have learnt to cope without the creative midfielder.
“Specifically, for him, in the creative part there aren’t too many in the league that are like him and we had to sort of cover that absence in different ways,” Postecoglou said.
“Kulusevksi played in there, Gio [Lo Celso] stepped in there and scored some goals for us.
“Our front three have really picked up and have got goals from set-pieces. The beauty of that is that when Madders comes back in, it’s not just reliant on him, whereas at the start of the season we were maybe a little bit more reliant on him.
“We found out through this period that we don’t have to be, but having him in there certainly adds to that as well.”
Man City’s record at Spurs
Manchester City have a poor record at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, having lost all five games they have played there, without scoring a single goal.
“That is the reality, (and shows) how tough it is for us,” Guardiola said. “Of course this is a ‘final’, a knockout game and to go through we have to score goals. Always it is a new opportunity to break it.
“The feeling is most of the times we played really good but the reality is there, no goals, five defeats - so they were much better than us.”
Tottenham vs Man City line-ups
Tottenham XI: Vicario, Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Udogie, Hojbjerg, Bentancur, Kulusevski, Johnson, Richarlison, Werner
Subs: Forster, Royal, Davies, Dragusin, Skipp, Maddison, Gil, Santiago, Scarlett
Man City XI: Ortega Moreno, Walker, Dias, Ake, Gvardiol, Rodrigo, Kovacic, Bernardo, Foden, Bobb, Alvarez
Subs: Ederson, Stones, Grealish, Doku, De Bruyne, Gomez, Nunes, Susoho, Lewis
Guardiola on managing De Bruyne’s return
Manchester City boss, Pep Guardiola, spoke about Kevin De Bruyne’s return from injury and how the medical team will continue to monitor his progress as he builds back to full fitness.
“He is ready and he was ready at Newcastle as well, but always we have the processes to observe to play 90 minutes,” he said.
“Really soon he will play from the beginning. He trained really well in Abu Dhabi and after every session, the recovery in his leg is behaving well.
“He has to continue to work on and off the pitch. He seems good.
“We are stronger with Kevin and Erling, but we cannot cry and wait five months (when they are missing) - we have to move forward, and we have done that.
“I’m not a big fan of finding excuses. Kevin’s fresh and now, he’s back - Erling and John as well - for the second part of the season. But first we travel to London to do a good game and try to go through to the next round.”
Tottenham’s third round result
Tottenham reached the fourth round thanks to a victory over Burnley when they entered the competition in the previous round.
It was a testing night for Ange Postecoglou’s men but Pedro Porro netted in the 78th minute to edge Spurs ahead and they held on to defeat their Premier League opponents.
Tonight’s fixture against Manchester City should prove to be a wholly different test though.
A blast from the past
Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou remembers watching Ricky Villa’s wonder goal to win Tottenham the FA Cup against Manchester City as a teenager in Australia.
Almost 43 years later, he leads out Spurs in another potential FA Cup clash against City at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this evening.
“I remember 1981, yes,” Ange said this week, “There are FA Cups I remember because they go into my teenage years. I remember a great game, really entertaining and a fantastic goal scored by Ricky on the night.”
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