sport news Man City 4-3 Tottenham (4-4 agg): Llorente takes Spurs into semi-finals

There were four minutes to go before half-time when Mauricio Pochettino made one of the boldest calls of his managerial career. Moussa Sissoko, a strong-running midfielder, limped slowly from the pitch; Fernando Llorente came on.

Tottenham were still going through, at the time, but Pochettino did not favour caution. He had plenty of defensive cover on the bench. He chose to introduce a striker, tinker with the team shape. Some 32 minutes later, Llorente would score the goal that sent Tottenham through to the Champions League semi-final. Fortune favours the brave; or, to dare is to do, as they like to say in that part of north London.

By the time Llorente scored, City were winning. The tie, and this crazy game. They had laid siege to Tottenham’s goal after half-time and where Raheem Sterling, Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva had been unable to convert good chances, Sergio Aguero had at last found a way through. 

De Bruyne was the architect, powering through the centre, a lovely run, Tottenham unsure how to deal with him, until the ball was laid to Aguero on the right. He lashed it past Hugo Lloris at the near post. No goalkeeper is content when beaten from that position, but the ball was as good as past him before he could react. Some of Aguero’s finishes are simply unstoppable.

Llorente, not so much. The goal that sent Tottenham through to a last four meeting with Ajax was not even in the top six scored on the night. If anything it was a fluke. Ederson failed to get to a corner, conceding another from the opposite side – and Llorente bundled that in with his body, missing the header but somehow making a connection.

To add to the drama it looked as if it might have some off his arm. So over to the screen went referee Cuneyt Cakir for several minutes of clarification. His view? It hit Llorente’s hip. And even if it didn’t, the call between hip and arm was not so obvious that the goal could be cancelled. Meaning Tottenham lost, but won. And then they conceded to Sterling in injury time, so they were really losing. 

And then that was cancelled by VAR for offside; so they won again. When these teams meet on Saturday, the same result will produce three points for City. Last night, it brought only more sorrow for Pep Guardiola, who went from haring down the touchline in celebration to falling to his knees, head in hands, in agony.

City have fallen to English opposition at the quarter-final stage two seasons in succession. Yet Tottenham scored three times at the Etihad. It is say their progress undeserved in those circumstances.