NOT THIS TIME Tottenham Hotspur's English striker Dominic Solanke (L), Manchester United's Portuguese head coach Ruben Amorim (C) and Manchester United's Uruguayan midfielder Manuel Ugarte walk on the pitch after the English League Cup quarter-final football match at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, on December 19, 2024. Tottenham won the match 4-3. Picture: Ben Stansall/AFP
Image: Ben Stansall/AFP
A late comeback was not enough this time as Manchester United went down 4-3 to Tottenham Hotspur in the EFL Cup, in London, on Thursday.
United secured a rousing 2-1 comeback victory over Manchester City over the weekend, but this time their late heroics could not save them.
Spurs were out to a 3-0 lead through a Dominic Solanke brace and a goal from Dejan Kulusevski, before United grabbed their first just after the hour mark as Joshua Zirkee scored for the visitors.
Amad Diallo scored again, like he did with the winner against City, to make it 3-2.
Spurs though restored their two-goal lead in the 88th as Son Heung-min got in on the action. Jonny Evans pulled a final goal back for United in injury time, but it was too late to affect the outcome.
United coach Ruben Amorim was left frustrated with his troops after the game.
“We were not the best team in all of the game, but most of the parts I think we were the best team," said Amorim.
"I think we disconnected for eight minutes. It was really hard to recover from that, but then the lads did a great job."
To their credit, United had more shots at goal with 20 compare to the nine of Spurs. Amorim’s charges also enjoyed more of the ball with 54% possession.
Meanwhile, Spurs coach Ange Postecoglou paid tribute to the character of his players.
"It should have been a lot more comfortable there, but having said that, I still can't get away from the fact that this group of players have done an unbelievable job at the moment to get us through this," said Postecoglou
"I know people will say, "Well, don't take any risks' and all that sort of stuff, but we wouldn't be scoring four goals and five goals.
"It's the hardest thing in the game to do, score goals, and we're doing it with bare bones."