It was a full midweek matchday of Premier League action and on Wednesday night Spurs would be taking on reigning champions Manchester City. Spurs astonishingly thumped the Cityzens 0-4 away at the Etihad back in November, with James Maddison grabbing a brace on his birthday. Ange Postecoglou's side had won the last three Premier League games now after Saturday's victory at Ipswich and were looking to make it four on the bounce tonight. The lineup was as followed: Vicario, Porro, Gray, Danso, Udogie, Bergvall, Bentancur, Maddison (c), Johnson, Tel, Odobert.
How things happened when Spurs faced Manchester City in North London
It wasn't a great start for Spurs, when after twelve minutes Jeremy Doku got the ball down the left before squaring it acros the box for prolific front man Erling Haaland to do what he does best to tap home from about six yards. Kevin Danso will be disapponted with himself letting the big Norweigan get in front of him at the near post. 0-1 to the visitors.
Doku was looking sharp in the first 20 minutes, and he was off down the left again when he drove at the Spurs defence, he cut inside and beat Porro and Bergvall before firing a low shot down to Vicario's right, but was well saved by the Italian.
City would come at Spurs again, Marmoush hassled Danso well in the corner where it fell to Savinho, and after some good one touch play from Nico Gonzalez, Mateo Kovacic and Doku, the ball would find it's way to Haaland from close range again but saved by Vicario to keep Spurs in the game.
Just before the break Spurs would have their best chance of the game so far. A free kick on the right was whipped in by Pedro Porro that was met by the head of Danso but was tipped over the bar by Manchester City shot stopper Ederson. Sadly for Spurs nothing would come from the resulting corner and they would be going into the break a goal down. Postecoglou wouldn't have been impressed with his teams performance in the first period, giving up too many chances to a top quality side.
Early on in the second half Spurs would have a huge chance, once again the threat coming from right back Porro, this time with an open play cross right across the face of goal whipped with pace but returning Frenchman Wilson Odobert couldn't make a solid connection albeit stretching as far as he could. Much better from the home side which lifted the crowd massively.
Ange would make four changes just after the hour mark, key players Dejan Kulusevski, Djed Spence, Pape Matar Sarr and the captain Heung-Min Son would all be entering the field for Mathys Tel, Destiny Udogie, Rodrigo Bentancur and Wilson Odobert. A few eyebrows would have been raised at the start of the game as to why the likes of Son and Kulusevski weren't starting, but with having only played on Saturday and them two in particular playing a ton of football this season, you could understand the Australian's thinking.
Spurs would make their final change of the evening on nearly 80 minutes with time running out to find an equaliser. Timo Werner coming on for Maddison on that left hand side. Werner's only goal for Spurs this season was against City when the sides met in the Carabao Cup and Postecoglou would have been hoping he could replicate that as the game appoached the final few minutes.
Spurs would come so close to an equaliser, Brennan Johnson would run down the right wing before playing it across the box, it would meet the right boot of Son but Ederson would get down superbly to deny the Spurs skipper.
Last kick of the game Manchester City thought they made it two, after a one-two between Haaland and Foden the striker would benefit from the ricochet's off Danso and Gray before calmly finishing fight footed into the bottom corner. However there was a lengthy VAR check and it was ruled out for a handball. Spurs would then so nearly equalise when they went up the other end, midfielder Sarr would make a run into the box and fire his header over the bar. Full time at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, a narrow 0-1 loss but definitely a more positive second half. You can't win them all, and with the recent form of the Lilywhites, manager Postecoglou won't be too worried with that result. Now Spurs' attention turns to Europe again when they will take on AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League Round of 16.