STOKE-ON-TRENT, England (Reuters) – Tottenham Hotspur reached the semi-finals of the League Cup with a 3-1 win over second-half side Stoke City on Wednesday night which was typically frozen thanks to from goals from Gareth Bale, Ben Davies and Harry Kane.
On the kind of unsettling afternoon that Stoke Stadium became famous in the Premier League, Spurs boss Jose Mourinho paid tribute to the team that is now at Championship to take a strong side from the outside world. introduction of Kane’s goal machine.
Running their first major cup since winning the League Cup in 2008, the Premier League side took complete control of the first half and took the lead when Gareth Bale was startled in a fine goal 22 minutes from time. Harry Winks cross.
This was Bale ‘s third goal since returning to Tottenham on loan from Real Madrid.
The Bet365 stadium was not well known, but the cold winds and pre-match rain made the old adage about the toughest test in football a “cold, wet night at Stoke”.
And of course, as the few in attendance watched the woolen weave, Stoke brought scowls to Mourinho’s face in the second half with a draw by Jordan Thompson, who defeated Hugo Lloris from nearby after a Jacob Brown pass in the 53rd minute.
Tottenham passed the small storm, however, to take the lead back with a low-level view from outside the area with Ben Davies in the 70th minute before Kane, inevitably, put in the lead. the top of the net from close range in the 81st minute.
‘TOUGH PLACE’
“We are very pleased. We knew that a cold, windy, wet Wednesday night at Stoke would be going to be difficult, ”player Winks said afterwards.
“The boys were great. It’s a hard place to come. ”
Spurs were top of the Premier League earlier this month but have dropped to sixth place after collecting just a point from their last three games. Mourinho has already won the League Cup four times with Chelsea and Manchester United and is now two wins away from the fifth win of the tournament.
“We deserved it,” he said after defeating Stoke. “Now we have two tough games to come.”
Tottenham will join Manchester City and Brentford Championship side guards in the semi-finals, along with Everton or Manchester United who played later on Wednesday.
At Stoke, Mourinho started with Dele Alli who was out of favor, but was replaced after Stoke goalkeeper 37-year-old Andy Lonergan knocked him out twice with neat saves. It was Lonergan ‘s first competitive game since turning out for Rochdale’ s third-tier league team in 2019.
Stoke manager Michael O’Neill said Stoke was too calm in the first half, but not entirely happy.
“We expected Spurs to come with a strong team – they may not have been as strong as they started,” he said.
“Spurs showed their class. They showed great quality … But we gave ourselves a reasonable description. ”
Reciting with Andrew Cawthorne; edited by Pritha Sarkar