Champions League - Tottenham 1-0 Manchester City: 5 Hits and Flops
Heung Min-Son's 18th goal of the campaign was enough as Tottenham earned a valuable one-goal advantage against a lacklustre Manchester City display during the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final.
In the first European fixture at their new stadium, both sides battled hard during a frenetic affair - though City struggled to create many goalscoring opportunities. The one golden chance presented to them came after VAR review, as Danny Rose handled Raheem Sterling's strike in the box.
Sergio Aguero stepped up but had his spot-kick thwarted by an excellent Hugo Lloris stop, keeping the scores level and prompting the game to burst into life. Tottenham were forced into a substitution ten minutes after the restart, as talisman Harry Kane went hobbling off down the tunnel in agony having come worse off during a 50/50 challenge with Fabian Delph.
Delph, making his fifth appearance of 2019, undid all of his previous good work dramatically as Tottenham broke the deadlock after 77 minutes. Christian Eriksen spotted an unmarked Son and after his probing pass, Delph stopped playing momentarily - believing the ball had strayed off the pitch.
Rather than playing to the whistle, he gave Son precisely the time and space needed to ignore his eventual challenge before slamming a powerful low effort through Ederson's legs to break the deadlock. With all of that in mind, here's a look at five hits and flops from an enthralling affair in north London:
#5 Flop: Sergio Aguero
By his own high standards, this was a poor showing from Aguero - although it's not particularly surprising after being sidelined for two games with a muscle injury.
City didn't create many clear-cut opportunities despite retaining possession well for the most part and Aguero missed the visitors' best chance of the night from the spot. Telegraphing his penalty with his subtle right-sided body position gave Lloris a better chance at saving the effort, though it wasn't a good attempt from the Argentine either.
He showed his quality in flashes, particularly with regards to close-control and being able to drift past opponents' challenges at ease sometimes. But from the half-chances he did create, they were wide of Lloris' goal and he failed to truly test the Frenchman.
Briefly turning creator only to see Sterling thwarted by Lloris early in the second-half, he dropped increasingly deeper to pick up the ball and City needed fresh impetus. Pep's decision to replace him after 70 minutes was brave but equally wise, with a number of important fixtures to prepare for over the next month, the last thing he needs is Aguero aggravating his recent injury problems.