Tottenham Hotspur left it late to complete a comeback victory against Coventry City and put their name in the hat for the 4th Round draw of the League Cup.
Two goals in the space of four minutes from substitutes Djed Spence and Brennan Johnson cancelled out Brandon Thomas-Asante’s earlier opener for Coventry midway through the second half.
Tottenham started sloppily and almost gifted Coventry an opener inside the first couple of minutes, when Jack Rudoni forced Fraser Forster into action, after the latter’s poor ball out to Lucas Bergvall.
After their poor start, the rest of the first half continued in a similar vein for Tottenham, who barely threatened Ben Wilson in the Coventry goal. The hosts continued to look the likelier side to open the scoring as well, with Destiny Udogie having to make a good block to deny the energetic Rudoni once more.
Coventry were by far the happier side at the break and continued their dominance into the second half, as despite an early blocked Johnson shot in the opening minutes, they continued to fashion the more genuine openings.
Forster was tested once again in the Tottenham goal, when Bassette fired in a shot on the angle, after being put through by Rudoni, whilst the former England goalkeeper’s difficult night almost got even worse, when he completely missed the ball after rushing out of his box, only for Ben Davies’ sliding goal line clearance to deny Haji Wright and spare his goalkeeper’s blushes.
Ange Postecoglou had finally seen enough and turned to his bench, bringing on Heung-Min Son and James Maddison, only for Coventry to finally make the most of their pressure minutes later. Rudoni slid a perfect ball across the face of goal and in behind the Tottenham defence, where the unmarked Thomas-Asante slotted the ball calmly past Forster to spark bedlam amongst the home support.
The goal seemed to wake the Premier League side up, with Davies forcing a brilliant reaction save from Wilson in the Coventry goal, before substitute Dejan Kulusevski’s fierce drive was also repelled by Wilson.
However, it was far from one way traffic, with Coventry continuing to look threatening and a substitute of their own, Ephron Mason-Clarke, twice just being unable to latch onto the end of balls that whistled across the face of goal.
With time running out, Tottenham finally showed their Premier League quality and made Coventry pay for their missed chances. Spence forced his way onto a through ball from Kulusevski with just two minutes of normal time left and toe poked the equaliser past Wilson, after clever interchange between Maddison and the Swede.
Penalties seemed to be looming large when Tottenham completed their late comeback, with Rodrigo Bentancur sliding an inch perfect through ball to Johnson, who calmly clipped the ball past the onrushing Wilson to the delight of the Tottenham fans in the away end and to put his side’s name in the 4th Round draw, which will take place after the other 3rd Round ties next week.
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