Tottenham Hotspur recovered after conceding twice in a chaotic start against Burnley to advance to the FA Cup fourth round with a 4-2 replay win on Wednesday.
Paulinho, Etienne Capoue and Vlad Chiriches scored their first goals of the season before Danny Rose completed Tottenham’s remarkable turnaround in the 52nd minute.
“The most important thing is how the team came back into the game and showed character to go to the next round,” Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino said.
Photo: Reuters
It was a tighter game for surprise Premier League highflier Southampton, who edged past second-tier club Ipswich 1-0 through a strike by Shane Long in the 19th minute.
Southampton, who are third in the league, are to host Crystal Palace in the fourth round on Jan. 24, when Tottenham play Leicester City at White Hart Lane.
Bradford’s reward for routing 10-man Millwall 4-0 in another replay on Wednesday is a trip to play Premier League leaders Chelsea after the third-tier team progressed from the third round for the first time in 15 years.
Photo: Reuters
It was a frenzied opening 10 minutes at White Hart Lane where slack defending by Tottenham’s much-changed team proved costly.
Martin Sordell volleyed past backup goalkeeper Michel Vorm after connecting with a long ball inside three minutes. Ross Wallace’s free kick then deflected off Tottenham striker Roberto Soldado, wrongfooting Vorm five minutes later, as Burnley raced into an unlikely 2-0 lead.
However, Tottenham responded quickly, with an Andros Townsend cross headed on by Soldado for Paulinho to stab into the net in the 10th minute.
There was a dreadful moment just before halftime for Soldado when the striker hit the crossbar after Townsend delivered the ball to his feet just 5m from goal.
“In football you don’t need to apologize, because we are sorry for him because I think he deserved a goal,” Pochettino said.
The hosts did go in at the break level after Capoue scored only his second Tottenham goal in his second season at the London club. Capoue drove the ball into the net from the edge of the penalty area from a Ben Davies cutback.
The start to the second half was as frenzied as the opening of the game, with Chiriches heading in Paulinho’s corner at the far post after four minutes to put Tottenham in front.
The turnaround was completed inside two minutes when a high crossfield pass from Benjamin Stambouli reached Soldado, who sent it across the goal for Rose to net Tottenham’s fourth.
After six goals, the remainder of the game could not match the opening 52 minutes.
“When you are 2-0 up and you make the mistakes we made, it is going to be very tough,” Burnley manager Sean Dyche said. “We made the errors.”
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