Tottenham vs Man City result: Son Heung-min goal separates teams, five things we learned

Tottenham Hotspur beat Manchester City 1-0 at their new stadium to take a slender lead in their two-legged Champions League quarter-final clash.

City blew a fine chance to open a lead when Sergio Aguero missed a first-half penalty. Danny Rose was harshly adjudged to have deliberately used his arm to block Raheem Sterling’s shot after a lengthy VAR consultation, only for Hugo Lloris to palm away the Argentine’s effort.

After that Spurs grew in confidence, but they faced an almighty setback when Harry Kane injured his ankle in the second-half in a collision with Fabian Delph.

However Son Heung-min proved he is more than a capable deputy when he lashed a low shot between Ederson’s legs, sealing a precious win for the north London club.

Here are five things we learned.

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Only moments before he lashed the ball between Ederson’s legs to finally break the deadlock, Son was sitting stricken on the turf and every Tottenham supporter’s heart was in their mouth. After losing Harry Kane to injury, they could ill afford to lose their second best player.

Fortunately, after receiving some treatment and trotting gingerly over to the sidelines, Son was able to continue. And just a few seconds later he was in exactly the right place at the right time to open the scoring. City had just started to assert their dominance when he raced onto Christian Eriksen’s clever pass, bringing the ball under control, cutting back from the byline and catching Ederson unawares with a low, skidding shot.

What a huge goal it could prove to be. Spurs will remain the underdogs to progress to the semi-finals – particularly without Kane – but Son’s goal at least gives them a lead to defend in the second-leg. They are a dangerous team on the counter-attack and Pep Guardiola will be well aware his side cannot simply go full throttle at the Etihad. It promises to be another thrilling battle.

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It is no exaggeration to say a great many Spurs fans would have rather lost this match 3-0 than lose Kane to yet another ankle injury. The Tottenham striker’s season now hangs in the balance.

His injury really could not have come at a worse time for Tottenham. Not only do they have another two matches to play against City, but they are also losing their grip on a place in the top four. Just a point separates them from fifth-place Arsenal and Mauricio Pochettino has made no secret about how important securing Champions League football is to the future of the club.

Kane is no stranger to ankle problems having been ruled out for prolonged periods in each of the last three years, with the 25-year-old missing two months with ligament damage earlier this season. From his distraught reaction, another lengthy absence looks sadly likely.

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NEWSFLASH: Professional footballers have arms. Arms that they cannot, for obvious reasons, be kept clasped behind their back every time the opposition attacks. Arms that will occasionally make contact with the ball – particularly when an opportunistic striker is rifling it into a defenders body from around two yards away.

It was clear to everybody watching, no matter how partisan, that Rose did not deliberately attempt to handle Sterling’s shot ten minutes into this match. Instead the defender slid towards Sterling to block his shot, the ball ricocheting off his left arm which was moving in a downward motion – rather than being cynically waved to illegally block the attempt.

It was not a handball. It was certainly not a ‘clear and obvious’ handball. But instead, after a lengthy consolation, Björn Kuipers awarded the softest of penalties. This is not what VAR was designed for. This is so far from a “deliberate intention to deviate the ball or stop an obvious opportunity” – the definition of a handball offence. Uefa has to take notice.

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Lloris’ subsequent stop to deny Aguero was the Frenchman’s third consecutive penalty save, following his performances against Leicester City and Arsenal. When his team needed him the most, the Frenchman delivered.

Lloris is 32 now and has made some high-profile errors this season, particularly against Liverpool, when he conceded a last minute own goal to throw away what had appeared to be a hard-won point. That, combined with the promising form of long-term understudy Paulo Gazzaniga, has led to some tentative calls from certain sections of the Tottenham support for Lloris to be dropped.

But Lloris remains a man for the big occasion. And he can still deliver moments of genuine world-class goalkeeping ability. His form may have been patchy over the last few months, but that save demonstrated why he is still Tottenham’s number one.

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Was anybody expecting this game to be quite so physical? City and Tottenham are two of the Premier League’s most aesthetically pleasing teams, and yet this was a blood and thunder dogfight, with both sets of players scrapping and wrestling their way through the match.

That Kuipers only gave out three yellow cards is something of a minor miracle. Kane in particular was an obvious target for City, with Fernandinho and Nicolás Otamendi repeatedly roughing him up, eager to leave something on the Spurs striker at every opportunity. How delighted they will have been to see Kane limp down the tunnel in the second-half.

Perhaps Guardiola felt that this Tottenham team can be rattled under pressure. Dele Alli came close to losing his temper on numerous occasions, and received more than one ticking off from the referee, while Kane himself jerked his head back at Fernandinho after one of the Brazilian’s more obvious fouls. It was a tetchy, terse, fundamentally nasty match, which leaves the next two encounters tantalisingly poised.