SPURS boss Ange Postecoglou channeled his inner Gladiator as he defended his gung-ho tactics.
Tottenham avoided a late wobble to beat Manchester United 4-3 in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals.
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The under-fire boss was put on the spot by Sky Sports in the wake of Spurs’ latest comedy of errors, when they were in danger of letting a 3-0 lead slip away.
But he came out fighting to defend his tactics, and used the phrase “Are you not entertained?” – the immortal line from the movie Gladiator and uttered by Maximus, played by fellow Aussie Russell Crowe.
Talking to Sky, Postecoglou said: “I know the studio (punditry team) is probably going into meltdown over my lack of tactics.
“I love the fact that we go out there and take it to oppositions.
“Obviously we made it harder than it should have been, for sure.
“Are you not entertained?”
Spurs were in cruise control thanks to two goals from Dominic Solanke and one from Dejan Kulusevski.
But back-up goalkeeper Fraser Forster pressed the self-destruct button, though, as his two errors set up a nervy finale.
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First United sub Joshua Zirkzee tapped in after Forster’s pass out from the back had been intercepted before Amad Diallo blocked his clearance to make it 3-2 with 20 minutes left.
Postecoglou’s men were teetering on the brink of collapse at this point, but captain Son Heung-min scored directly from a corner with two minutes left despite protestations from Altay Bayindir.
It ensured Jonny Evans’ stoppage-time header was a mere consolation as Spurs, without 10 players, marched on to set up a semi-final against Liverpool and took a big step towards winning a first trophy since 2008.
Postecoglou said: “We played so well, well in control of the game.
“It’s the way our season has gone a little bit, we self-inflicted some pain on ourselves and then we had to scramble to get a foothold again.
“It should have been a lot more comfortable than it ended up being but having said that, I still can’t get away from the fact this group of players is doing an unbelievable job at the moment to get us through this.
“We’re in a semi-final of a cup competition, so I think that’s something to reflect this progress for us and we’ve got an opportunity now, home and away to get to a final and we’ve earned that opportunity.”
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Ruben Amorim suffered the third defeat of his Man United tenure but had no issue with Tottenham’s fourth goal.
“I never speak about referees and I will not start now,” Amorim insisted.
“The lads did a great job to recover and we were so near the draw, so near and it could make the difference because we still have time to win the game, but then the fourth goal was really hard for us.”