Gareth Messenger

17 April 2019. 

Manchester City 4-3 Tottenham Hotspur.
Aggregate score: 4-4.
Tottenham wins on away goals. 

Seriously, where do you even start? It was a wild night, full of drama and controversial incidents to boot. It was an incredible, breathless start at the Etihad. Five goals in a 17-minute first-half frenzy.

3:51 – Raheem Sterling makes it 1-0 to Man City
6:52 – Son Heung-Min equalises, squirming a shot past Ederson
9:02 – Son curls in to make it 3-1 Spurs on aggregate
10:43 – Bernardo Silva’s deflected effort levels the scores on the night
20:32 – Sterling scores his second to make it 3-3 on aggregate

It left City effectively needing to win the second half and they looked on course when Sergio Aguero crashed home their fourth in the second half after Kevin De Bruyne sliced Spurs open.

If that was not dramatic enough, the relentless ebb-and-flow was only really getting started. After such a bright start, Mauricio Pochettino's side struggled to weather a City storm, that was until the magic luck of his super-sub.

On as a first-half substitute for the injured Moussa Sissoko, Fernando Llorente bundled in from a corner via his hip with just over 15 minutes to play - the goal given after a VAR check for handball.

This was a Tottenham team already battered and bruised. Harry Kane was injured. Harry Winks, Eric Dier and Erik Lamela were all missing from the midfield. Sissoko had to be replaced, and Dele Alli was playing with a broken hand.

Pochettino had to call on all his forces to continue the Champions League story that had already seen Spurs go to Barcelona and get the result they needed to qualify from the group stage. 

If you thought the start of this tie was fast and loose, the ending was just as chaotic. There were extraordinary scenes when Raheem Sterling thought he had then completed a hat-trick deep into injury time to send City through only for it to be ruled out after the Italian VAR Massilmiliano Irati asked the Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir to review. Sergio Aguero was offside in the build-up. 

Pep Guardiola was crestfallen as he slumped to his knees in disbelief. His moment of elation, as quickly as it came around, disappeared into a cloud of smoke. His players at the whistle slumped to their knees. Tottenham’s players and fans celebrated like soldiers of the frontline finally winning the war. 

When Tottenham’s players managed to catch their breath, they could look forward to a semi-final, while blowing a gaping hole into City’s hopes of an unprecedented quadruple.