Tottenham Hotspur edged Hull City 8-7 in a tense penalty shootout to reach the English League Cup quarter-finals on Wednesday, while Manchester City overcame Newcastle United after extra-time.
Hull had lost 1-0 to Spurs in the Premier League on Sunday and came within a whisker of exacting revenge on their return to White Hart Lane.
Icelandic midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson was one of eight players brought into the Spurs team and he made a stunning impact in the 16th minute, flummoxing his marker with a neat drag-back and then arrowing a sumptuous shot into the top-left corner from long range.
Photo: AFP
Second-choice Spurs goalkeeper Brad Friedel made a less favorable impression, gifting Hull an equalizer in the 53rd minute.
Liam Rosenior’s low cross from the right was hooked back across goal by the sliding Curtis Davies and Friedel inadvertently fumbled the ball into the net for an own-goal.
Spurs saw 20-year-old midfielder Harry Kane rattle the woodwork from 18ms in stoppage-time, but it was Hull who struck first in extra-time, with Paul McShane heading home from a George Boyd corner.
However, Kane would not be discouraged and he drilled home a 108th-minute equalizer to make it 2-2 and send the game to penalties.
Aaron McLean missed for Hull before Spurs’ record-signing Erik Lamela fluffed his lines for the hosts, but Friedel had the final say, blocking Ahmed Elmohamady’s effort with his legs to secure the win.
“We’ve seen some brilliant, brilliant football tonight,” Spurs manager Andre Villas-Boas said. “If you want to see predictable endings or happy endings, you go to the opera or the theater. In football, you don’t know what is going to happen. I couldn’t be happier.”
Spurs’ reward was a home tie with West Ham United, while Manchester City will travel to second-tier Leicester City after Alvaro Negredo and Edin Dzeko struck in extra-time in a 2-0 win at Newcastle.
City made 10 changes to the team beaten 2-1 by Chelsea on Sunday, with Javi Garcia the only player to keep his place, while Newcastle manager Alan Pardew brought five new players into his starting XI.
There was an early blow for the visitors when Montenegrin forward Stevan Jovetic had to go off in the 10th minute following a challenge by Mike Williamson, with Negredo coming on in his place.
Newcastle enjoyed the best of the first half, but Yoan Gouffran was thwarted by City goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon and Shola Ameobi had a goal ruled out for offside, while Vurnon Anita volleyed just wide.
City upped the tempo after the break, with James Milner and Negredo both going close, and it was the latter who broke the deadlock in the ninth minute of extra-time, netting a low cross from Dzeko.
Dzeko got on the scoresheet moments later, skirting Krul and rolling the ball home to rubberstamp City’s place in the last eight for the fourth time in seven years.
“We played a very good game and deserved to win,” City manager Manuel Pellegrini said.
On the prospect of facing Leicester, the Chilean said: “I’m not thinking it’s an easy tie. Leicester continue in this cup because they beat Fulham and that is not an easy team, so we suppose we will have a very difficult match and if we want to win, we will have to play very well.”
The draw for the quarter-finals also handed Manchester United an away game at Stoke City, who were beaten 3-2 at Old Trafford in the Premier League on Saturday.
Chelsea will visit the victors of the one remaining fourth-round tie between Sunderland and Southampton, to be played next week.
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