At the end of last season, Pep Guardiola was asked what more he could achieve in the game if his Manchester City team won the treble. “Score against Spurs away,” he replied. He was joking, wasn’t he?
City had beaten Internazionale in the Champions League final and touched immortality, but here, finally, was the glory crown. City not only scored the first goal at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on the sixth occasion, but also the first score.
Nathan Ake scored as Manchester City beat Tottenham 1-0 to qualify for the fifth round of the FA Cup.
Ake scored City’s first goal at Tottenham Hotspur in the 88th minute from a corner, his 102nd in all competitions.
Spurs argued that the goal should have been overturned due to a foul on goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, but their complaints were ignored after a VAR review.
Before that, there had been five defeats out of five; an unusual and difficult to explain sequence. However, they pulled through and strengthened their FA Cup defence, with Nathan Aké scoring a much-needed goal towards the end.
Spurs goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario was at fault. He came under pressure from Ruben Dias after a Kevin De Bruyne corner, who Guardiola introduced as a 65th-minute substitute. Vicario looked to draw a foul, but it wasn’t there, and when he took a poor shot, Aké parried the ball away.
The previous City player to score at the actual Spurs stadium was De Bruyne in September 2015; this takes into account the time the London club spent at Wembley while its home was being renovated.
De Bruyne looked set to break the shutdown as City pressed hard in the closing stages. Bernardo Silva and another substitute, Jérémy Doku, shot too close to Vicario, with De Bruyne having a great chance in between. Phil Foden robbed Pierre-Emile Højbjerg as Spurs tried and failed to play out from the back, and when the ball came to De Bruyne, everyone was watching his shot into the bottom corner. The shot went wide of the post, and at that point it looked like City would never score. Aké had other ideas.
TOTTENHAM CHEATED:
Ake: Tottenham were caused a lot of embarrassment by VAR after Ruben Dias’ blatant foul on Vicari leading to Nathan Ake’s goal, but the referee didn’t look at the pitch-side monitor while the officials in the VAR room ignored the incident and conceded City’s goal.
A similar incident occurred in the Man City v Liverpool match when Manuel Akanji obstructed Allison going down the corner, as did Vicario, but Ruben Dias’ goal was disallowed for a foul on the Liverpool goalkeeper, which Dermot Gallagher confirmed was the correct decision.
At Tottenham, however, VAR turned a complete blind eye for some reason and conceded City’s goal, which helped Pep Guardiola’s men beat Spurs at the new White Hart Lane and qualify for the 5th round of the FA Cup.
HOW CAN TOTTENHAM GET JUSTICE?
Belgium’s top-flight league match between Anderlecht and Genk will be replayed in full after a VAR error led to a misapplication of the laws of the game.
This is the decision of football’s disciplinary body.
The incident happened in the 23rd minute of the match when Genk striker Yir Sor scored after a rebound of a missed penalty kick by Bryan Heynan.
Replays showed that Sor was inside the area when Heynan took the direct kick.
As a result, VAR recommended to referee Nathan Verboomen that the goal should be overturned.
However, the replay also showed that two Anderlecht players had also entered the penalty area.
According to the laws of the game, the penalty should have been replayed for Genk.
On 23 December 2023, Anderlecht won 2-1 thanks to Anders Dreyer in the 91st minute.
I THINK Tottenham should use the same move that happened in the Belgian league if the Lilywhites want justice and fair treatment after VAR deliberately knocked them out of the FA Cup, resulting in another trophyless season for the north London giants.
What do you think?