Middlesborough's extraordinary spell in this season's FA Cup continued on Tuesday night as they beat Tottenham Hotspur in the fifth round encounter to book a place in the quarter-final of the competition. The Championship club emerged as victors after 120 minutes of football with substitute Josh Coburn scoring a fine winner to send the Premier League club packing out of the English cup competition.
Middlesbrough reached this stage of the FA Cup after defeating Manchester United on penalties at Old Trafford, and ahead of the clash with Spurs, manager Chris Wilder stated there was no way he would rest players for the match. Similarly, Antonio Conte did not want to leave any stone unturned, naming the same line-up that he used in defeating Leeds 4-0 on Saturday.
However, the quest was far from a stroll for the Italian and the North London club as they will be kept at bay by the impressive defensive unit of the Championship club. With none of the teams registering a goal after 90 minutes, extra-time was ushered in and it was during the period that Tottenham Hotspur had their quest for a trophy since 2008 coming to an unfortunate end.
In the second minute of the second half of extra time, Middlesborough broke the deadlock through teenager Josh Coburn. The teenager who had replaced Andraz Sporar in the 96th minute found himself in the right place at the right time to bury a brilliant finish and spark wild celebrations inside the Riverside. The win landed the North Yorkshire club the chance to feature in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup for the first time since 2017. On the contrary, Tottenham Hotspur's poor run of form continued, with the club picking up their seventh defeat from the 13 games played in 2022.
The match winning goal pic.twitter.com/sdrJYRWlC1
— Emirates FA Cup (@EmiratesFACup) March 1, 2022
