Roman Pavlyuchenko and Fraizer Campbell took full advantage of their starting berths with two goals each in our 4-2 Carling Cup fourth round victory over Liverpool at The Lane.
Russian international Roman returned to haunt the side he scored a last minute winner against in the league 10 days ago, while Fraizer netted his first goals for the Club since a loan move from Manchester United.
Damien Plessis and Sami Hyypia struck for the visitors in the first half, but our fifth win out of six in all competitions maintained Harry Redknapp's unbeaten start as Spurs manager and sent us through to the quarter-finals.
There were no less than seven changes to the side which defeated Manchester City in the league on Sunday.
Michael Dawson came into the centre of defence as skipper, with Alan Hutton and Gareth Bale in either full-back position.
Tom Huddlestone and Didier Zokora retained their places in central midfield with Aaron Lennon and Jamie O'Hara coming in to occupy the wings.
A break from the league programme also gave Redknapp the chance to experiment with two up-front for a change.
And Pavlyuchenko and Campbell relished the chance to prove themselves as the free-scoring Darren Bent was rested on the bench to start with.
From the start, the pair were causing trouble to the visiting backline. Pavlyuchenko rose but just failed to connect properly with Lennon's early cross, while Campbell was just out of reach having chased down Huddlestone's throughball on six minutes.
Lennon himself had a shot well blocked by Daniel Agger on 19 minutes, and from the resulting corner, Pavlyuchenko again couldn't get enough purchase on a header to trouble Diego Cavalieri.
But we were the dominant side and it seemed only a matter of time before we broke the deadlock. The opener came on 38 minutes and it was Pavlyuchenko who scored it.
Bale played a ball down the left hand side which Campbell chased and dragged back from the by-line for the Russian to sweep home left-footed through the goalkeeper's legs.
Full credit must go to Campbell for holding off the experienced Hyypia to get the ball in, and it summed up how the England Under-21 international's night was going.
A minute later, he was nearly the provider again, playing in O'Hara through the middle only for the midfielder's first time shot to be saved.
But Campbell wanted his name on the scoresheet, and as Cavalieri misjudged O'Hara's high ball on 42 minutes, he stole in to take it round the stranded Brazilian and tap home into an empty net.
It is fair to say few players have enjoyed their first goal for a club more than young Fraizer as he celebrated with the fans - and he wasn't finished there.
On the stroke of half-time, he got on the end of Lennon's curling cross and buried a header home to give us a comfortable half-time lead.
But Liverpool were determined not to go out without a fight and scored twice in the second half to reduce the deficit.
Their first came just four minutes after the break when Plessis' header from six yards out after Ryan Babel's corner wrong-footed Heurelho Gomes and sneaked over the line.
And on 64 minutes, Hyypia got to another Babel corner in-front of the on-rushing Gomes to head home into an empty net.
But in between these goals, Pavlyuchenko had netted our fourth to ensure there were not too many second half nerves.
O'Hara dispossessed Plessis in the middle of the park, and Zokora drove into the box and hit a deflected shot which fell into the path of the Russian who tapped home.
Pavlyuchenko could have had a hat-trick 10 minutes from time when he latched onto a Huddlestone throughball and hit a fierce shot that was beaten away by Cavalieri.
However, the night did have its sour note as Gomes was stretchered off with a head injury after a second half collision with Philipp Degen. We will keep you updated on his progress.
But the main point from the night is another impressive victory as we continue our defence of the cup, and a bit of history as the win means Redknapp has made the best start to a managerial reign at the Club since Frank Brettell 110 years ago!
Spurs (4-4-2): Gomes (Cesar, 74); Hutton, Dawson, Corluka, Bale; Lennon, Zokora, Huddlestone, O'Hara; Campbell (Bent, 90), Pavlyuchenko (Boateng, 90)
Liverpool (4-4-2): Cavalieri; Degen (Darby, 85), Agger, Hyypia, Dossena; El Zhar, Plessis (Alonso, 66), Leiva, Babel; N'Gog, Torres (Insua, 56)
Subs not used: Bentley, Modric, Gunter, Rocha
Subs not used: Gulacsi, Riera, Benayoun, Carragher
Linked here.
No comments:
Post a Comment