Stuart James's match report
FULL TIME: Swansea City 0-3 Tottenham Hotspur
Swansea’s dream of a third FA Cup semi-final appearance is over. Tottenham were much the better team here today, Christian Eriksen once again their star man. Spurs make it to the final four for the 21st time: their hopes of a first FA Cup since 1991, and a first trophy since 2008, remain very much alive.
90 min: A possible sour end to an already bitter afternoon for Swansea. Olsson curls a cross in from the left. Vorm claims. Abraham goes down with nowhere near him. Has he twisted his knee? He’s able to get up after a short period of attention from the physio. Hopefully he’ll be fine, with Swansea now free to concentrate on their relegation battle.
89 min: Narsingh bursts down the right. For a second, a hook into the centre would release Clucas and Abraham down the middle. But he hesitates, and the chance for a Swansea consolation is gone.
87 min: This corner is a complete non-event. Spurs care not a jot.
86 min: Eriksen goes for goal, whipping low towards the bottom left. Nordfeldt does just about enough, the ball bouncing off his chest. Llorente should poke the loose ball home, but his confidence is shot and the effort is blocked out for another corner. Before that can be taken, Routledge comes on for Dyer.
85 min: From a short corner, Davies attempts to dribble into the Swansea box. Ki isn’t having it, and shoves him to the ground. It’s a free kick, but not a booking. Spurs load the box.
84 min: Son turns on the jets and makes good down the left. His low cross is turned out for a corner by Bartley.
83 min: Spurs do more of the clock-management thing at the back. Pass, pass, passity pass. Swansea let them do it. Everyone just going through the motions.
81 min: Roberts comes on for van der Hoorn, while Lamela is replaced by Alli, who takes the stage to pantomime boos.
79 min: Spurs open Swansea up with some crisp triangulation in front of the box. Son is released into space down the left; he drags a shot across the face of goal. Llorente didn’t make a move at the far post. That’s Tottenham’s 21st effort on goal; Swansea have managed three.
78 min: Dier, deep on the left, very nearly releases Trippier into the Swansea area down the right. Not quite. Goal kick. There’s not much going on right now.
76 min: Carroll plays a simple pass out of play for a goal kick down the right. That pretty much sums up Swansea today; they’ve been dreadful.
75 min: Sissoko one-twos with Llorente down the inside left. He nearly breaks clear into the area, but Bartley reads the play well and intercepts.
73 min: Spurs make their first switch of the afternoon. That’s the end of Moura’s match; he’s been quietly impressive today. Former Swan Fernando Llorente comes on, and is greeted with a smattering of polite applause.
72 min: Spurs indulge in some possession football at the back. Both teams would take the final whistle right now.
70 min: Carroll curls the free kick into the mixer, forcing Dier to head out for a corner. It’s Swansea’s first of the game ... and it’s punched clear by Vorm without too much drama.
69 min: Olsson romps down the Swansea left and is unceremoniously hacked down by Sanchez, who is quite rightly booked for the ludicrous lunge. A free kick out on the touchline, and a chance for Swansea to load the box.
67 min: Moura slips Lamela free down the left. From the byline, Lamela blasts an outrageously ambitious shot towards Nordfeldt, perhaps hoping for a handling error. Nordfeldt stands strong; he’s not getting beaten from there.
65 min: Space opens up for Sissoko down the inside right. He should stride into the box and have a blast, but tries to dink the ball back towards Lamela on the penalty spot. The pass is blocked.
64 min: This is in danger of turning into a rout. Lamela flicks a delicious first-time reverse pass down the inside-left channel to tee up Moura just inside the area. Moura should slam home, but hesitates and instead opts to tee up Eriksen again. This time the resulting low fizzer is sucked up by Nordfeldt.
GOAL! Swansea City 0-3 Tottenham Hotspur (Eriksen 62)
This is over. Dier and Moura nearly open Swansea up with some crisp one-twoing down the left. Dier pulls the ball back for Moura, who can’t quite get a shot away from the penalty spot. Moura plays it softly back, teeing up Eriksen, who hammers through a thicket of players and into the bottom left.
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61 min: Son has a blast from a tight angle on the left. Bartley blocks. Spurs are beginning to reassert themselves.
60 min: The next corner sees Eriksen sashay in from the right and hammer a low ball into the six-yard box. Van der Hoorn clanks that one out for another corner. Finally Swansea clear. But Spurs had them under the cosh there. The Swans have been bright since the restart, but another goal for the visitors will kill this tie stone dead.
58 min: Space for Eriksen down the right. Narsingh heads his cross out for a corner. The set piece is pulled back down the wing. Eriksen fires in a low, diagonal ball which has Swansea in sixes and sevens. Mawson hacks out.
57 min: Moura is sent scampering down the left wing, released by a gorgeous crossfield pass from Eriksen. He enters the area, then takes a heavy touch that allows Nordfeldt to close him down and snaffle. This can’t end 0-2. It just can’t.
55 min: Moura twists and turns and nearly gets the better of van der Hoorn down the inside left. The big defender cuts out a cross, albeit with his arm, though he was falling flat on his face at the time. There’s no way that’s deliberate, and the referee agrees. The resulting set piece comes to nothing.
54 min: Eriksen pitching wedges a pass into the Swansea box, straight down the middle, for Son, who nearly gets a toe to the dropping ball. Nordfeldt gathers. There are surely more goals in this game. It’s so open.
53 min: Narsingh turns Davies inside out, like an old sock, down the right. He chips one into the centre. Abraham tenses his neck muscles, preparing to smack a header home from six yards, but Sanchez gets his eyebrows in the way to clear the danger. Where was this Swansea in the first half?
51 min: Eriksen bustles down the centre of the park. The ball breaks right for Sissoko, who shanks woefully wide from distance. Not ideal. “As nice as Eriksen’s golazo was, Lamela’s goal will have Spurs fans buzzing even more,” writes Dan Hamilton. “For a notoriously one-footed player, it was a pleasant shock to see him score with his right.”
50 min: Dier, from the best part of 30 yards out, down the inside-left channel, sends a curler towards the top left. It’s heading in, a sweet out-and-in strike. But Nordfeldt tips it out for a corner at full stretch. The corner comes to nothing, but this is a game now!
48 min: Spurs respond through Moura, who dribbles at pace down the left and nearly breaks into the box. Not quite, but for the first time this afternoon there’s a bit of cup-tie frisson in the air.
46 min: Swansea are immediately on the front foot! Olsson, opening his legs down the inside-left channel, sends a pearler goalwards from 25 yards. It’s met by a stunning full-length save by Vorm. The rebound drops to Abraham, but quickly. His follow-up header is straight at Vorm and parried too, and the danger is over. What a shot by Olsson, and what a double save! That could have changed everything.
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And we’re off again! Swansea get the ball rolling for the second half, having swapped Naughton for Narsingh.
Half-time reading:
HALF TIME: Swansea City 0-2 Tottenham Hotspur
A smattering of boos as Swansea trudge off, heads bowed. Spurs are in total control: they’ve scored two, had one disallowed by VAR, and Eriksen has hit the bar. Their dream of a first FA Cup since 1991 looks good right now; Swansea’s hopes of a first semi-final appearance since 1964 are a bit more faint.
GOAL! Swansea City 0-2 Tottenham Hotspur (Lamela 45+1)
Lamela dribbles hard down the inside-left channel. He drifts infield a bit, uninhibited by any sort of meaningful challenge from a white shirt. Swansea backing off again, like they did with Eriksen. And the result is the same. Lamela lines up his shot, and curls low and hard into the bottom right. It’s no more than Tottenham deserve for their first-half dominance.
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45 min: Yet another corner for Spurs, this time down the right. Some head tennis in the box. Son nearly gets the ball under control. It’s hacked clear. “In defense of my many folk-singing friends, there’s a good reason you see them with a finger in one ear (24 min),” writes Nigel in Toronto. “Most folk clubs have a mic and amp for the singer but do not have monitors on stage. Therefore the poor singer cannot hear him/herself over the amplified sound. A finger in the ear lets you hear yourself while singing.” Fair enough. Nobody emailing in with a similarly passionate defence of VAR, you’ll notice. Fol-de-rol.
43 min: Dyer whips a cross into the Spurs box from the right, but Sanchez is able to clear it without too much bother and suddenly the away side are on the quick-break. Lamela and Son aren’t on the same wavelength, though, which is a shame for Spurs as Swansea were light at the back.
41 min: It’s all gone a bit flat at the Liberty, the result of Tottenham’s total dominance.
39 min: Another corner for Spurs, this time on the left. Eriksen takes. He whips it to the near post, where Dier flashes a header over the bar. He should have done much better. That’s a real chance.
37 min: The resulting corner comes to nought.
36 min: Trippier bustles and earns a corner for Spurs down the right. Lamela works the set piece up and down the wing. Then he shifts the ball inside for Eriksen, who pearls a rising shot towards the top left from the edge of the box. It’s another stunner, but this time Nordfeldt gets a fingernail to it, at full stretch, and turns it onto the crossbar. What a wonderful save!
35 min: Swansea enjoy a little period of possession in the Spurs box. They go nowhere in particular, but that’s a bit better. Small acorns, and all that.
33 min: Mawson and Dyer attempt to replicate the spectacular Mahrez-Vardy combination for Leicester against West Brom the other week. Full marks for ambition, if nothing else.
32 min: Lamela leans back and has an absurd blast from 25 yards. Nope!
31 min: Space for Lamela down the left. He whips a glorious low ball across the face of the Swansea goal. Moura lunges in, but can’t quite get a toe to it. So close to a second for Spurs. They’ve already sort of scored that second, of course, but this is where we are.
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29 min: See 27 min. Swansea’s fans are getting a little irritated with their team’s passivity.
27 min: It’s still all Spurs. Absurdly lop-sided. Apart from Dyer’s sortie into the box in the first minute, Swansea haven’t done a thing in Tottenham’s final third.
25 min: No goal. It would seem the pictures were inconclusive, according to the officials, so they’ve gone with the on-field decision. Thing is, Son looked onside, dead in line with the last man. Penny for Pochettino’s thoughts.
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24 min: The ref stands with his finger in his ear, like a tone-deaf folk singer.
23 min: Eriksen, quarterbacking from deep, sends Son away down the middle. Son brings it down with a telescopic leg. He then smashes the ball into the top left from the edge of the box! What a finish! But he’s flagged for offside. There really wasn’t much in that. And so we’re going to VAR.
21 min: The corner isn’t all that.
20 min: A loose ball from Clucas allows Moura to zip towards the Swansea box down the right with great determination. For a second, Moura looks as though he’s going to cream a shot goalwards from a tight angle. But Mawson slides in to put a stop to that, at the expense of a corner. Wonderful saving tackle.
18 min: Lamela goes on an elaborate dribble down the left, and nearly works a path clear towards the Swansea goal. Fortunately for the Swans, Naughton is on hand to blast clear, just in time. The home side are clinging on a bit, though.
16 min: Swansea can hardly get a sniff. Spurs are in total control.
14 min: Swansea were way too passive for the goal, and now they allow Moura to diddle his way into the box from the right. Some lovely ball-glued-to-toecap skills. He can’t quite sort his feet out to lash a shot goalwards, and sends a dribbler towards the bottom left that’s easy for Nordfeldt to gather. But the home side could be out of this in short order unless they snap out of their collective daze at the back.
13 min: “Que sera sera, we’re going to Wembley!” trill the Spurs fans, eyebrows pinging up and down in the knowing fashion.
GOAL! Swansea City 0-1 Tottenham Hotspur (Eriksen 11)
You could see this going in from way back, because Swansea allowed it to happen. Lamela, out on the right, flicks a pass inside for Eriksen. The Danish international is allowed to run, and run, and run, and run. He bides his time, and lines up a glorious power curler into the top left from 20 yards. That’s so sweet! But Nordfeldt had no chance, because none of his defenders bothered closing Eriksen down.
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10 min: Spurs are beginning to find their range. Sissoko and Lamela swap places, the latter trying to feed the former this time, with a flick down the inside right. But Nordfeldt is quickly off his line to gather.
9 min: Sissoko floats a pass down the inside-left channel, and Lamela momentarily looks like getting to it first and breaking into the box. But Bartley is across to shepherd it back to Nordfeldt.
7 min: The incredibly assured Mawson rakes a pass down the left for Abraham, who takes the ball down under pressure and lays off inside for Clucas. The move is interrupted by a garden-variety foul, but that was some neat play out from the back. Both teams look confident in their own way.
6 min: Vertonghen beckenbauers his way down the middle of the park and slips a ball through the Swansea back line for Son. The striker’s clear, and he tucks the ball away, but he was well offside and the flag goes up.
4 min: Spurs pass and probe down the right, Eriksen and Moura seeing rather a lot of the ball. Davies flicks a pass towards Son, breaking into the box down the channel. Mawson is over to intercept and mop up.
2 min: Abraham drives down the inside-left channel and flicks a ball into the centre for Dyer to chase after. Dyer tries to round Vorm on the right, but the keeper spreads himself to tap the ball away. Dyer goes over, and wants a penalty, but the ref isn’t interested at all. Well that’s quite a brisk start on a brisk day.
53 secs: Spurs stroke it around the back with the confidence of a team who have never lost at the Liberty Stadium. Swansea finally get a touch and ...
Swansea’s fourth FA Cup quarter-final kicks off! Spurs get the party started. A reminder that this tie will be decided today, after extra-time and penalties if needs be. And the VAR is in operation, which explains Pochettino’s low seethe in the pre-match interview.
The teams are out! Swansea are in their white shirts, so Tottenham are forced into second-choice blue. It’s a cold, windy day in south Wales, but there’s a cup-tie atmosphere to warm the cockles. We’ll be off in a minute! Meanwhile the first, and possibly last, email of the day comes from Woolie Madden: “I was going to make a joke about Swansea bringing on Mulder as a fox-in-the-box, but a quick Wikipedia check tells me that the Swans’ no.25 is in fact a, er, goalkeeper. He’d still be in the box though, right?”
Carlos Carvalhal speaks! “We have made some changes like we have done in the past in this competition. But we still have a good squad, I think it is strong. We understand it is David against Goliath, but the cup games are different. When a good team doesn’t perform at the best level, and a team that is not so good performs at a very good level, surprises can appear. We will try to do our part. So let’s try to play at our best level, with our identity and principles. We know they will have more of the ball, but we know our strong points. Even the best teams in the world have some weak points. We will try to exploit those small weak points!”
Mauricio Pochettino speaks! BT Sport’s Reshmin Chowdhury asks whether his selection reflects his confidence in his squad. “Yes of course. Just as after Juventus we made changes to face Bournemouth. I think it is about balance. It is important to provide a team with good energy, after playing in three competitions in one week. The starting XI is exciting. I hope we can go further in the competition. This is the last chance to win a trophy, it is an important game for us, for our fans, and our club. I hope the VAR is working better! It is difficult to change my mind about what I think about that system, but I hope it is working well, and that the referee will be the boss of the pitch. That is important.”
The teams
Swansea City: Nordfeldt, Naughton, van der Hoorn, Bartley, Mawson, Olsson, Dyer, Ki, Carroll, Clucas, Abraham.
Subs: Britton, Narsingh, Routledge, Mulder, Fernandez, Roberts, Byers.
Tottenham Hotspur: Vorm, Trippier, Sanchez, Vertonghen, Davies, Sissoko, Dier, Eriksen, Lucas Moura, Son, Lamela.
Subs: Lloris, Alderweireld, Llorente, Dembele, Alli, Foyth, Aurier.
Referee: Kevin Friend (Leicestershire).
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Swansea City make five changes to the side that ground out a goalless draw at Huddersfield Town last weekend. Kristoffer Nordfeldt, Kyle Bartley, Tom Carroll, Nathan Dyer and Tammy Abraham are recalled; Federico Fernandez drops to the bench, Andy King and Andre Ayew are cup-tied, Jordan Ayew is suspended, and Lukasz Fabianski misses out altogether.
Tottenham Hotspur also ring the changes, with only four of the XI named at Bournemouth last weekend keeping their place. Hugo Lloris, Serge Aurier, Mousa Dembele and Dele Alli drop to the bench; Danny Rose and Victor Wanyama miss out; and of course Harry Kane is injured. Stepping up: Michel Vorm, Kieran Trippier, Ben Davies, Eric Dier, Moussa Sissoko, Erik Lamela and Lucas Moura.
Preamble
This is Swansea City’s first FA Cup quarter final for 54 years. The last one was a doozy. In 1964, as struggling Second Division side Swansea Town, they went to Anfield to play champions elect Liverpool. Jimmy McLaughlin and Eddie Thomas put the Swans 2-0 up in the first half. Peter Thompson pulled one back for Bill Shankly’s men just after the hour, and the home side laid siege on the Swansea goal. But keeper Noel Dwyer was inspired, making a series of blocks. Ronnie Moran hoicked a late penalty deep into the Kop, and Trevor Morris’s side were in the semis. They succumbed to Preston North End in the last four; West Ham went on to win the cup.
Before that, we’re looking back to the 1920s. In 1926, Town were a mere 14 years old when they knocked The Arsenal, chasing the title under their new manager Herbert Chapman, out in the quarters at Vetch Field. Again they went 2-0 up in the first half, through Leonard Thompson and Jack Fowler; again the First Division behemoths pulled one back in the second, through Alec Mackie; again Swansea held on. Arsenal ended that season as runners-up in the League to the famous Huddersfield; Swansea went down 3-0 in the semi of the cup to eventual winners Bolton.
A year later, Swansea got to the quarters again, but went down to Reading, who lost in the semis to Cardiff, who went on to win the cup. So probably best not to linger too long on that. Point is, it might only be a small sample, but Swansea have a decent record in the quarter finals: they’ve only played three, but they’ve managed to win two, and those against heavily favoured teams managed by Herbert Chapman and Bill Shankly.
Tottenham Hotspur go into this game as much-fancied favourites. But just look at what can happen in the cup. This has the potential to become a thrilling encounter. Here’s hoping. It’s the FA Cup quarters! It’s on!
Kick off: 12.15pm.
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