Tottenham Hotspur booked their place in the fourth round of the FA Cup with a 1-0 win over Burnley on Friday evening.
Spurs were well below their best for the vast majority of the contest but an unbelievable strike from Pedro Porro late on proved the difference for Ange Postecoglou’s side.
Burnley did have chances, with Zeki Amdouni missing two glorious opportunities, but the hosts were rarely under much pressure as they sealed their place in the next round.
How the game unfolded
Both sides began with real energy, Tottenham buzzed around Burnley’s box but were regularly met with fierce resistance, while Wilson Odobert stung Guglielmo Vicario’s gloves from range.
Richarlison dragged wide shortly before the 10-minute mark, before Johnson’s curling effort from the edge of the box drew a smart save from Arijanet Muric in the Burnley net, but that was as bright as things got in the first half.
Spurs quickly started to dominate possession, pressing Burnley with immense energy to recover the ball high up the pitch, but the visitors nearly took the lead against the run of play when Amdouni got in behind the Spurs defence, only to send his strike soaring over the bar.
While Ange Postecoglou’s side had close to 70% of the ball in the opening half, their attack fell flat after the early opportunities. Muric was not particularly busy after denying Johnson, with Burnley’s battling defence standing firm.
The home fans were audibly frustrated as Spurs continued to struggle in attack. Burnley sat deep and allowed plenty of strikes from distance, but Muric was not worried by any of them.
Destiny Udogie’s cross set up Johnson for a nice volley shortly after the hour mark, but the strike didn’t ask much of Burnley’s stopper, who comfortably pushed it away.
Spurs needed a moment of magic to get through Burnley, and they got exactly that with an absolute monster of a strike from Porro with 11 minutes to go.
Just after Richarlison wasted a good chance to score, Porro won back possession and unleashed a ferocious strike from outside the box which fizzed right into the top corner of Muric’s net. A truly stunning strike.
With 97 minutes on the clock, Hannes Delcroix missed a good chance but Burnley’s best effort came from the corner that followed. Muric was up attacking and headed the ball on to Amdouni, who was alone in the six-yard box, but the striker could not contort his body to control his effort and sliced wide from point-blank range with the final touch of the game.
GK: Guglielmo Vicario – 6/10 – Barely involved.
RB: Pedro Porro – 8/10 – Painfully wasteful from corners but impressed in open play. Defensively reliable and a willing runner going forwards as Spurs tried to make something happen. An outrageous goal.
CB: Emerson Royal – 6/10 – A little slow on the ball but didn’t do a whole lot wrong. Held his own against Burnley’s forwards.
CB: Ben Davies – 6/10 – Not good on the ball but thoroughly impressive when it came to tackling.
LB: Destiny Udogie – 7/10 – Definitely on it. Charged up and down the left wing with his typical energy and was a major impact at both ends of the field.
DM: Oliver Skipp – 5/10 – Didn’t have a whole lot of defending to do but didn’t really enjoy the responsibility of trying to push Spurs forwards. Passing range was not there.
DM: Rodrigo Bentancur – 7/10 – Showed some much-needed composure on the ball to try and make things happen. One of the few Spurs players who really looked up for this one after the first 15 minutes.
RM: Dejan Kulusevski – 5/10 – Another example that Kulusevski’s future perhaps lies away from the wing. The Swede struggled to get involved as much as he does in a central role, although he wasn’t much better when he did move inside on the hour mark.
AM: Giovani Lo Celso – 5/10 – Struggled up against Burnley’s physicality. Clearly targeted by the visitors and spent plenty of time picking himself up off the floor.
LM: Brennan Johnson – 6/10 – The brightest spark in Spurs’ forward line started red hot but soon cooled. Regularly involved but guilty of some poor decisions in the final third.
ST: Richarlison – 5/10 – Can’t fault the work rate and desire to press, but can fault about everything else. A spirited performance which yielded very little success.
Substitutes
SUB: Bryan Gil (58′ for Lo Celso) – 6/10
SUB: Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (77′ for Skipp) – 6/10
SUB: Ryan Sessegnon (83′ for Johnson) – N/A
SUB: Jamie Donley (83′ for Bentancur) – N/A
SUB: Dane Scarlett (83′ for Richarlison) – N/A
Subs not used: Fraser Forster (GK), Micky van de Ven, Ashley Phillips, Alfie Dorrington
Manager
Ange Postecoglou – 5/10 – This wasn’t good from Spurs but Postecoglou managed to rest some starters and hand some opportunities to a few youngsters. At this stage of the season, you take that.
GK: Arijanet Muric – 7/10 – A handful of smart saves early on and confident when coming to claim crosses. Could do nothing about Porro’s screamer.
RB: Vitinho – 6/10 – Seemed a little shaky in the first half but calmed himself down in the second half and contributed to Burnley’s stubborn back line.
CB: Dara O’Shea – 7/10 – A handful of nervous moments as he followed the instructions to play out from the back, but when it came to actual defending, he did his job admirably. Threw himself at everything.
CB: Hannes Delcroix – 7/10 – Guilty of his own mistakes on the ball but was an impressive force defensively. Smart positioning saw him cut out a number of Spurs crosses.
LB: Charlie Taylor – 7/10 – Probably expected to be busier than he was. Held his own defensively and tried to get involved on Burnley’s rare forays forward. Unlucky to be forced off through injury.
RM: Anass Zaroury – 6/10 – A handful of glimpses of quality, including a glorious pass that should have led to an opener from Amdouni.
CM: Aaron Ramsey – 5/10 – Hard to be too critical since Ramsey, an attacking midfielder, was asked to play a defensive role. Clearly not comfortable.
CM: Josh Cullen – 7/10 – Really relished this ugly performance. A lot of nice blocks and interceptions when Burnley needed him most.
LM: Wilson Odobert – 6/10 – Not involved as much as Burnley would have liked but still looked like a real terror when he did get on the ball. A lot of fun to watch yet again.
ST: Lyle Foster – 3/10 – Isolated and uninvolved in the first half and was hooked at the break.
ST: Zeki Amdouni – 5/10 – Had to work incredibly hard to get involved but should have done better with a handful of efforts, including arguably the two best of the entire game.
Substitutes
SUB: Jacob Bruun Larsen (46′ for Foster) – 5/10
SUB: Josh Brownhill (58′ for Odobert) – 6/10
SUB: Ameen Al Dakhil (67′ for Taylor) – 6/10
SUB: Mike Tresor (67′ for Zaroury) – 5/10
SUB: Nathan Redmond (67′ for Ramsey) – 5/10
Subs not used: Lawrence Vigouroux (GK), Connor Roberts, Jack Cork, Jay Rodriguez
Manager
Vincent Kompany – 4/10 – The weird combination of trying to play football while also sticking to a low block looked uncomfortable. Kompany’s substitutes also didn’t help Burnley’s cause.
Player of the match: Pedro Porro (Tottenham)
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