Tottenham Shake Off Penalty Shoot-out Jinx To Beat Hull

After two hours of football at White Hart Lane it took penalties to separate Tottenham and Hull in the Capital One Cup 4th Round tie. Kyle Walker scored the decisive ninth penalty and Brad Friedel went on to secure the win with his second penalty save of the evening.

Kyle Walker scored the winning penalty in shoot-out [Photo: Jav The_DoC_66]

Tottenham Hotspur 2 Hull City 2 (aet) [Spurs won 8 – 7 on penalties]

Scorers: Sigurdsson, Kane  Friedel (og) McShane

Team: Friedel; Walker, Kaboul, Vertonghten, Naughton (Chiriches); Paulinho, Lamela, Dembele; Sigurdsson, Eriksen (Chadli) (Kane); Defoe Subs: (unused) Lloris, Holtby, Capoue, Bentaleb

It was a dramatic end to the second meeting between the two sides in four days as Tottenham progressed to a quarter-final tie at home to West Ham United. It was Spurs’ first penalty shoot-out success since 1994 when they defeated Peterborough United in an FA Cup 3rd Round tie and only their third in all competitions. Since then Spurs had lost 7 successive shoot-outs.

As expected Andre Villas-Boas made eight changes to the team which was fortunate to defeat Hull on Sunday with only Kyle Walker, Jan Vertonghen and Paulinino retaining their places. It was a strong line-up with Erik Lamela, Christia Eriksen, Mousa Demblee and Jermain Defoe among those who started with Etienne Capoue taking his place on the bench for the first time since the beginning of September after recovering from injury. Hull made only three changes due to injury problems but Tom Huddlestone didn’t get a second game against his old club and Jake Livermore was again ineligible.

An early cross from Hull opened up the Spurs defence but Danny Graham missed the target and was saved embarrassment as he had been off-side. Spurs dominated the first half an hour with quick inter-passing football which pushed Hull back in to their own half as they were backed by a more vociferous White Hart Lane crowd who created a much better atmosphere inside the ground.

Younes Kaboul headed wide from an Eriksen corner on 8 minutes and Spurs were rewarded for their early efforts with an outstanding goal from Gylfi Sigurdsson after 15 minutes. Kyle Naughton cut in from the left and played a short pass to Sigurdsson who controlled the ball, turned and crashed home a shot of immense power from 30 yards. What a goal!

Spurs continued to maintain the tempo but after 30 minutes a break for an injury to Hull defender Alex Bruce who was later replaced,  brought a change with Hull pushing forward and putting some pressure on Friedel’s goal. On 34 minutes he was forced to dive low and push out a shot with Kaboul making a vital tackle and clearance as the ball fell to Graham on the edge of the area. Hull had introduced a second striker and were more positive going forward.

Early in the second half Defoe had a shot wide but Hull drew level after 53 minutes with an unfortunate goal from Friedel’s point of view. Spurs had failed to clear a corner and when the ball was crossed back into the area it came to Davies at the back post. He should have put the ball into an empty net but his effort went across goal and was going wide until it hit the goalkeeper lying on the ground. In spite of his best efforts, Friedel couldn’t retrieve the situation as the ball ended up in the back of the net.

Encouraged by the goal Hull were a much greater threat going forward. Nacer Chadli replaced Eriksen and Vlad Chiriches came on for the injured Kyle Naughton after 68 minutes. Ten minutes Harry Kane had to come on for Chadli who was injured.

In the final minutes the game went from end to end but Kane almost settled the tie in normal time. He had the ball in the net after 82 minutes but it was disallowed as Defoe had controlled Vertonghen’s cross with his arms before flicking the ball on to the young striker. Then in the third minute of additional time, he had tremendous shot which cannoned off the outside of the post with the goalkeeper beaten.

In extra-time Hull went ahead through McShane who headed in powerfully from a corner. Friedel got his hand to the ball as it went into the roof of the net but could not stop it. In the final period of extra time, AVB pushed Kane up as a second striker playing beside Defoe but it was Hull who nearly sealed victory only to shot over when through on goal. A minute later Kane equalised. He received the ball from Defoe, took it across the edge of the area to find a shooting angle and shot across the keeper to make it 2 – 2 after 108 minutes. In a final effort to avoid penalties Defoe had a shot blocked and in the final minute Kane laid the ball back to Sigurdsson but he couldn’t repeat his earlier effort and fired wide.

Penalty Shoot-out

Goalkeeping coach, Tony Parks and Brad Friedel – penalty shoot-out heroes [Photo: Jav The_DoC_66]Tottenham went first and Sigurdsson converted. Friedel dived to his right and saved the first Norwich penalty – advantage Tottenham. Defoe and Vertonghen scored as did Hull to make it 3 – 2 to Spurs. Lamela took the fourth penalty but the goalkeeper dived low to save his shot and Norwich scored to make it 3 – 3. Kane confidently scored the next one but Hull responded in kind to take it to sudden death. Paulinho, Kaboul, Dembele scored with power but Hull were equal to the task. Walker made it 8 – 7 and when Friedel saved the next penalty, Spurs had finally beaten Hull and their penalty shoot-out hoodoo.

West Ham await in the next round but next up are Everton in the League. Spurs hadn’t wanted over two hours of tension packed Cup football in preparation for their trip to Goodison.