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.”
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
The San Francisco Giants signed 18-year-old Taiwanese pitcher Yang Nien-hsi (陽念希) to a contract worth a total of US$500,000 (NT $16.39 million). At a press event in Taipei on Wednesday, Jan. 22, the Giants’ Pacific Rim Area scout Evan Hsueh (薛奕煌) presented Yang with a Giants jersey to celebrate the signing. The deal consisted of a contract worth US$450,000 plus a US$50,000 scholarship bonus. Yang, who stands at 188 centimeters tall and weighs 85 kilograms, is of Indigenous Amis descent. With his fastest pitch clocking in at 150 kilometers per hour, Yang had been on Hsueh’s radar since playing in the HuaNan Cup
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Coco Gauff’s dreams of a first women’s singles title in Melbourne were crushed in the quarter-finals by Paula Badosa. World No. 2 Alexander Zverev was ruffled by a stray feather in his men’s singles quarter-final, but he refocused to beat 12th seed Tommy Paul and reach the semi-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in 2 hours, 20 minutes to advance the semi-finals. Hsieh and Ostapenko converted eight of 14 break
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and partner Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia yesterday advanced to the women’s doubles final at the Australian Open after defeating New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe and Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 6-3 in their semi-final. Hsieh has won nine Grand Slam doubles titles and has a shot at a 10th tomorrow, when the Latvian-Taiwanese duo are to play Taylor Townsend of the US and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic in the championship match at the A$96.5 million (US$61 million) outdoor hard court tournament at Melbourne Park. Townsend and Siniakova eliminated Russian pair Diana Shnaider and Mirra Andreeva 6-7
RSS