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Man City's amazing fightback stuns Spurs
(sportinglife.com)
Updated: 2004-02-05 09:42
Manchester City produced one of the greatest comebacks in FA Cup history as they came from three goals and a man down at half-time to beat Tottenham 4-3.
Tottenham Hotspurs' Gus Poyet (L) gets a shot past Richard Dunne (R) of Manchester City during the F.A. Cup 4th Round Replay match at White Hart Lane in London. [AFP] |
Spurs looked to be strolling into the fifth round past a beleaguered City thanks to three magnificent first half goals.
Ledley King gave them a dream start by smashing home into the top corner inside just two minutes.
Robbie Keane then beautifully trapped a lofted ball forward from Steve Carr before neatly flicking past Arni Gauter Arason for the second barely 15 minutes later.
Combative City midfielder Joey Barton was then booked for fouling Michael Brown and City received further punishment when Christian Ziege powered home the free-kick to make it 3-0.
Barton added to boss Kevin Keegan's woes when Rob Styles sent the midfielder off for a second bookable offence as the teams left the field at half-time after he continued protesting over his first booking.
The second half was a totally different story.
City stormed back with goals from Sylvain Distin and a heavily deflected effort from Paul Bosvelt.
Then a fantastic goalkeeping display from debutant Arason kept City in the match after he pulled off a string of saves including tipping a Ziege free kick onto the bar.
Shaun Wright-Phillips then grabbed a sensational equaliser when he latched onto Robbie Fowler's through ball and calmly chipped over Kasey Keller's head with just 10 minutes to play.
Jon Macken then completed an astonishing turnaround when he headed home Michael Tarnat's cross in the final minute to complete City's dramatic fightback.
In Wednesday's other fourth round replay Fulham booked a fifth round tie with West Ham after Steed Malbranque clinched the winning goal in a 2-1 victory over Everton in extra time.
A 90th minute goal from Francis Jeffers had earned the Toffees a replay in the first match and the Everton striker did it again in Wednesday's replay this time to take the match into the additional 30 minutes.
Boa Morte, who had levelled accusations of racism after a heated encounter at Goodison Park, set up Fulham's opener.
After a tricky run, the former Southampton man passed to Junichi Inamoto, who hammered home from 20 yards.
Malbranque eventually settled the tie when he netted from close range in the 102nd minute with Boa Morte again playing a major part in the build-up.
Telford's fourth round match with Millwall again fell foul of the weather and has now been rescheduled for Wednesday, February 11.
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