Tottenham prevail in match of utter madness and goalkeeping calamities as Man Utd are dispatched

Picture by YTJourno

Carabao Cup Quarter-Final

Tottenham (1) 4 Solanke 15, 54, Kulusevski 46, Son 88

Man United (0) 3 Zirkzee 63, Diallo 70, Evans 90+4

One day, Angeball is going to have to adapt to the slightly unsexy concept of game management. But for now, it all seems a distant prospect.

Spurs somehow contrived to make a game of it after cruising into a 3-0 lead - creating a crisis entirely of their own making. Two horrendous goalkeeping errors from Fraser Forster induced jitters that were off the scale.

This is a team that looks as if it cannot defend a lead to save its life. Spurs gained relief through a goal direct from a corner, and promptly shipped another goal to shred the nerves just that little bit more.

This is surely a blueprint that cannot endure if there is ever to be silverware at the end of it all. Somehow they are into the sem-finals but it was way too close for comfort. Ange Postecoglou is bringing entertainment and heart-attacks in equal measure for those bewildered Tottenham fans.

Dom Solanke helped himself to a couple of goals and now has nine for the season. He should have been the defining story of the night. Instead, it was the ludicrous mistakes which will be the abiding memory.

Solanke's double continues a rich vein of form for the striker against United as he scored in the 3-0 win at Old Trafford a couple of months ago and also bagged two for Bournemouth against them last season.

Spurs started brightly and were soon rewarded for their energy. Solanke was perfectly placed to profit from a goalkeeping parry that was none too convincing - reserve stopper Altay Bayindir pushing Pedro Porro's rifled effort from outside the box right into the danger zone in front of him.

Christian Eriksen looked good playing in front of his former patrons - spreading long wide passes with accuracy and getting forward to come close to scoring - forcing a back-tracking Yves Bissouma into an important block. He also rippled the roof of the net with an angled free-kick.

Dejan Kulusevski almost doubled the lead, twisting around Lisandro Martinez and testing Bayindir's reflexes with a firm angled strike that the keeper was equal to.

The young keeper would have felt better about himself then, but he had little chance with the second goal as James Maddison darted in from the left and Martinez could only deflect the ball back for Kulusevski to bury it from close in.

Soon it would be three as Solanke took on a retreating United defence, side-stepped the hapless Martinez and speared a low shot into the bottom corner.

United boss Ruben Amorim made three changes in a bid to find a way back, with Manchester derby winner Amad Diallo's replacement of a dreadful Antony the most predictable. Archie Gray had bossed the Brazilian out of the match.

Joshua Zirkzee replaced Rasmus Hojlund - another player to cut a sad figure on the night - and he almost got a header past a stretching Forster but the keeper blotted his copybook soon after with some complacent passing around the box that invited an interception from Bruno Fernandes and a cross for the striker to tap home from three yards.

Worse was to follow for him though, when he showed no urgency from a routine Gray back pass and was rapidly closed down by Diallo, who deflected an attempted clearance straight past him and into the net.

On the ropes. There was palpable panic all of a sudden. It felt like a re-run of that recent implosion against Chelsea.

Noussair Mazraoui came close to levelling it after being picked out by Fernandes inside the box, cutting back onto his left foot to wrong-foot a defender before drilling wide.

Forster almost got his legs in tangle from another Diallo effort from distance, only just adjusting in time to welly it clear.

Luckily the goalkeeping disasters were not confined to one end and when Heung-Min Son curled in a corner under the bar, Bayindir's attempted punch clear did not connect and it sailed over him and directly into the net.

The keeper was boked for protesting he had been impeded by Lucas Bergvall but the Spurs midfielder was not penalised by ref John Brookes.

Relief? It was huge. Yet even then they allowed Jonny Evans to head in at a corner. The madness stayed with us right to the very end.

Spurs: (4-2-3-1) Forster - Porro, Dragusin, Gray, Spence (Reguilo 90) - Sarr, Bissouma - Kulusevski, Maddison (Bergvall 79), Son - Solanke (Johnson 90)

United: (3-4-2-1) Bayindir - Yoro, Lindelof (Evans 45), Martinez - Mazraoui, Eriksen (Mainoo 56), Ugarte (Garnacho 71), Dalot - Antony (Diallo 56), Fernandes - Hojlund (Zirkzee 56)

Attendance: 57,409