With 12 minutes of second-half stoppage time, manager Enze Postecoglou made a substitution.
Tottenham Hotspur defeated Sheffield United 2-1 in the fifth round of the 2023-24 Premier League (PL) at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, England, on Saturday at 11:00 p.m. The win was Spurs’ fourth straight and keeps them in second place with four wins and one draw (13 points).바카라사이트
Tottenham’s incredible run through the fourth round of the PL. Expectations for the fifth round were naturally high. The team deployed its best and most trusted lineup. Captain Son Heung-min, Manor Solomon, James Maddison, Dejan Kulusebski, Yves Bissouma, Pape Sarr, Destiny Udoji, Micky van der Penn, Christian Romero, Pedro Foro, and Guglielmo Vicario made up the starting lineup.
Tottenham continued to push forward and showed their intent to find a goal. However, poor finishing in front of goal and saves from the opposition goalkeeper prevented them from opening the scoring. But then it happened. In the 29th minute, a long throw-in missed Gustavo Hammer. The ensuing shot hit the post and went into the back of the net.
With things looking so bad, questions began to arise as to why the substitutions weren’t made sooner, and it wasn’t until the 35th minute that Son, Saar and Solomon were taken off and Brennan Johnson, Hischalisson and Ivan Perisic took the field.
Postecoglou’s choice was brilliant. Eight minutes into second-half stoppage time, Perisic delivered a pinpoint corner kick. He curled it hard to the near post, where Hyshalisson headed it into the back of the net. Then, in the 10th minute of stoppage time, Kulusebski rattled the net with a right-footed shot from a Hyshalisson pass.
After the match, Postecoglou told the press conference, “Quite a lot happened today. It’s a great ending in terms of what we’re trying to build. In addition to the soccer aspect, we’ve also been trying to build our mental strength and resilience within the group, and we showed all of that today. Hopefully, we can take this as a boost. Every time you face adversity and overcome it, it helps you grow.”
He also explained the late substitution. “We pretty much dominated the game, we just didn’t have enough goals to open the opponent’s goal,” said Postecoglou. “It was a question of when to make a substitution when you’re a goal down, and I was confident that we would have at least 10 minutes of extra time, so I thought that was enough time to make a change.
On this day, Sheffield’s players were lying down an unusually high number of times. This resulted in a significant amount of stoppage time and, under the revised rules, an incredibly long extra period. Postecoglou took that into account when he made his substitution, and it worked.