More to come: Tottenham Boss Ange breaks another premier league record as a manager
Pedro Porro’s 25-yard strike helped Tottenham defeat Burnley 1-0 at home to blunder into the FA Cup fourth round.
Spurs were far from historic, and a replay at Turf Moor seemed likely until full-back Porro broke through with an incredible strike in the 78th minute on Saturday (AEDT), as witnessed by Ange Postecoglou.
Tottenham achieved a well-earned fourth victory in their last five games, but Clarets manager Vincent Kompany may be able to draw heart from their strong performance and focus all of their efforts on remaining in the Premier League.
Only Carlo Ancelotti at Chelsea has enjoyed a longer scoring start at a club in the Premier League history (first 28 games) than Spurs, who have scored in all 22 of their games under Postecoglou.
Although Son Heung-min was overseas for the AFC Asian Cup on that lovely September day, Spurs had already defeated Burnley 5-2 this season. Despite this, the visitors got off to a strong start in north London without their hat-trick hero.
Wilson Odobert put Tottenham goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario to the test with a long-range effort after Anass Zaroury had fired over early on.
With just two changes made for this third-round match, Postecoglou’s team—possibly his strongest one—began to perform well right away.
After a deft play, Richarlison scuffed wide, but Brennan Johnson’s curler compelled Arijanet Muric to react.
Soon after, as the clock reached 16 minutes, the entire stadium erupted in cheers in remembrance of Tottenham supporter Harry Pitman, who lost his life on New Year’s Eve.
After a heartfelt minute of ovation, Giovani Lo Celso hooked over. Rodrigo Bentancur’s tackle on Zaroury was later reviewed by VAR, but Spurs’ interim captain escaped punishment.
With twenty-seven minutes played, Kompany’s team had their greatest opportunity when Zeki Amdouni was placed through on goal by Zaroury’s deft pass. Although the offside flag was raised, the shot still went past.
Before half-time, Johnson did miss a goal after a Porro center, but N17’s dull opening 45 minutes finished in a goalless draw.
For the second half, Tottenham was sent out early, and at first, Dejan Kulusevski drove over, as Lo Celso and Johnson put Muric to the test.
However, Spurs continued to attempt to stroll the ball in, and when Kulusevski elected to pass rather than shoot from a favorable position, the home crowd let out audible groans.
Moments after Lo Celso hobbled off, Charlie Taylor went down with a shoulder injury for Burnley, forcing Kompany to make three substitutions, Nathan Redmond among them.
By now, Johnson had prompted Muric into action once more with a volley into the ground, and the hosts’ feeble attempts to win a penalty were dismissed when the attacker went down following a brief touch from Josh Brownhill.
A rerun at Turf As the seconds passed, Moor appeared to be becoming bigger, but Porro had other plans.
Just after Richarlison was unable to capitalize on Kulusevski’s cross, Porro wrested the ball from Ameen Al-Dakhil and fired a 25-yard shot that dipped and went into the corner.
Ryan Sessegnon, a substitute for Tottenham, came dangerously close to ending the match in the 86th minute, but Muric made a save, and Burnley’s keeper nearly equalized late on when Amdouni volleyed wide from a corner.
