Tottenham 3 Brentford 2
Ange Postecoglou’s side welcomed Brentford for a London derby, looking to get themselves back in the top four after Man City ended their hopes of silverware this season. That FA Cup defeat means their sole focus for the season now is to ensure they qualify for the Champions League.
The visitors thought they had made the perfect start after some flowing passing saw Roerslev drill the ball into the far corner. Sadly for Brentford, the linesman immediately raised his flag for offside. Jensen did seem to have started his run a little early in the replay.
Thomas Frank’s side continued to press and as Toney headed towards goal, he looked to drill the ball home but Vicario managed to block his shot. Maupay was following up and managed to scramble the ball over the line to give The Bees the lead in North London.
Tottenham almost found an instant reply as Richarlison looked to bend one in the top corner from outside the box but his effort missed the goal by the narrowest of margins. In the absence of Son, the Brazilian had been amongst the goals lately but this one was not to be.
Credit: @BrentfordFC
Brentford continued to press and had Tottenham in trouble for most of the first half. As the ball was lifted into the box, Maupay could not get it under control, although Jensen almost got his head on it as it headed out for a corner.
As Spurs failed to clear the resulting cross, Pinnock tried a cheeky backheel but saw his improvised shot go just wide of the far post. Frank’s side were looking the far more dangerous of the two teams and most likely to get the next goal.
Despite his mild-mannered demeanour with the media, Postecoglou must have read his side the riot act in the interval. Early in the second half, Werner slotted a pass into Udogie who stumbled through the defence all too easily.
As his shot was blocked, it came straight back to the defender, who slotted home at the second time of asking. It was a soft goal for Brentford to give away after they had worked so hard in the first half to get themselves into a position of strength.
Kulusevski then played Werner in down the left once again. The German forward played a dangerous ball across the six yard box and Johnson slid in to score. It was all going pear-shaped for The Bees, Spurs were looking like a completely different team to the one from before the interval.
Udogie broke forward from defence, finding Maddison in the box. He looked to get a goal on his first game back but his effort was blocked and rebounded into the path of Richarlison. The Brazilian slotted home to get his seventh goal is as many games.
Credit: @SpursOfficial
Tottenham had scored three quickfire goals in only seven minutes of the second half. Thomas Frank could not believe what he was seeing as his side folded quicker than French forces when confronted with a German offensive.
Lewis-Potter found Toney in the final third and the striker only had one thing on his mind. He caught his shot, from outside of the box, with some real venom but it whistled wide of the post. Brentford’s striker was looking like he had spent no time away from the game.
As Roerslev got down the wing, he managed to find Maupay in the box. He unselfishly looked for Toney but the striker slipped as he went for the ball. Managing to regather it, he dummied a shot before looking to find the far corner but dragged it wide of the goal. What were the odds on that?
Moments later, Udogie looked to play a back pass to Vicario, not realising that Ivan Toney was lurking. The Brentford striker took one touch to get the ball under control, before slotting into the bottom corner to give the visitors a glimmer of hope in the game.
Brentford had a huge chance to come away from North London with a point when the ball was lifted to the back post in added time. Baptiste met it with a volley but it was too close to the Tottenham keeper, who tipped it over the crossbar.
Postecoglou’s side took the points and, in the process, catapulted themselves to fourth in the table. Brentford are still dangerously close to the bottom three and with a tough run of games ahead, need to find points from somewhere.
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