Heung-Min Son fires Tottenham ahead in Champions League quarter-final with Sergio Aguero’s penalty miss coming back to haunt Man City
HEUNG-MIN SON’S team-mates could not stop him and neither could VAR.
Heung-Min Son, scorer of the first goal in this gleaming new stadium against Crystal Palace, is playing like he owns the place.
Manchester City were a level up, with Son grabbing the winner against with a glorious strike 14 minutes from time.
What a night for these super Spurs after they overcame Harry Kane’s latest ankle injury to draw first blood.
It was an incredible, intoxicating first leg in front of these boisterous Spurs supporters.
They have the upper hand now.
Son got the only goal, a triumph for persistence and determination when he refused to let go of the ball.
It is a fine line.
Christian Eriksen chipped it into the Spurs forward with a clever pass 11 minutes from time.
His first effort was blocked, but he kept going and going and going until he could get another shot away.
When he did, he lashed it left footed beneath Ederson to give Spurs a precious first leg advantage.
Even the VAR review demanded City’s players led to nowt. This was Tottenham’s night.
The pace, as promised, was ferocious and fierce.
FAST AND FURIOUS
Pep called it right because this was Premier League football played at x2 speed.
Gone are the cat-and-mouse catenaccio days of European football at the highest level.
The egos will not stand for it.
Instead they fling everything at it, throwing men forward in an attempt to boss it out there on the big nights.
This was a game for grown-men only.
Everybody was grizzly, from Harry Kane to Fernandinho to the two super competitive coaches on the touchline.
There is more of this on the way on Wednesday when they will tear into each other again at the Etihad.
It feels like it will come down to the last man standing.
Spurs needed an advantage, a goal start to take with them to Manchester for the second leg.
They were in the mood for it, with Dele and Moussa Sissoko combining brilliantly for the first proper chance.
Dele caught Sissoko’s cross clean seven minutes in, but the chance was always on the rise.
They were still feeling each other out the VAR intervention came out of nowhere.
INSTANT REPLAY
English football had better get used to this because it will be on its way to a Premier League ground near you next season.
Danny Rose had gone to ground early, leaving himself vulnerable to the whims of any fuddy-duddy official.
Bjorn Kuipers is certainly that, pausing momentarily before deciding to take a second look at the deflection from Raheem Sterling’s effort.
Fair play to the fella, he was spot on.
It was a big moment for Hugo Lloris because the Tottenham keeper’s form has been patchy and under-par for months.
Here he channelled his World Cup-winning form, reading the game and preparing himself for the biggest save of the night.
He got to the ball first, leaping to his left to paw away Aguero’s 11th minute effort.
The place crackled, with the Tottenham fans stationed on the White Wall getting to grips with this first leg.
THRILL SEEKERS
It was belting stuff out there.
Spurs responded, with Harry Winks firing over when Christian Eriksen’s free-kick eventually dropped out of the sky.
Then there was the Nicolas Otatmendi let-off, catching the Spurs defence snoozing when Ilkay Gundogan swung in a tasty looking free-kick from the right.
Otamendi was unmarked, sending a downward header into the arms of Lloris.
There was another shout for VAR intervention when Fernandinho and Kane tangled.
Pep demanded action because he certainly appeared to lash out with an elbow when they collapsed on top of each other.
Back they came for more after the break, hurtling into the second half in search of the opening goal.
Aguero sent in a cross for Sterling to take down at the far post at the restart.
Lloris spilled it, but City did not have anyone on the spot to gobble up the rebound.
Sonny was next in the queue, manufacturing a long-range chance on his left foot.
HARRY BLOW
Spurs were forced into a change when the main man Kane hobbled off with an ankle injury after 56 minutes.
The forward had been asking for trouble, putting himself about a bit on a physical and robust night at this stadium.
He has done his left ankle again, back on the treatment table after a collision with England team-mate Fabian Delph.
The second leg is surely beyond him.
Instead Poch will have to reconfigure his team, work out a way to stop the City machine.
Here he sent for Lucas Moura, ignoring the goal threat of Fernando Llorente and rely on the the extra workrate.
He had a point because City’s running was ceaseless.
Most Read In Sport
They never stop hustling, taking time and space away from these Spurs players inside their new stadium.
It was all working out nicely until Son was sent speeding through, finding enough wriggle room to beat Ederson.
Now that is Son way to win a Champions League tie.