Crouch nets the £50 million winner for super Spurs

PETER CROUCH flicked Tottenham into the Champions League with a dramatic late winner in what was dubbed the £50 million game and consigned Manchester City to another 12 months of madness and turmoil.

Spurs were well worth their victory, with Crouch pouncing to take full advantage of the visitors’ second-half domination and exploit City’s lack of ideas and adventure.

It was enough for Tottenham to move four points clear of City, making Sunday’s matches an irrelevance and earning a first-ever Champions League campaign for a team that was facing the prospect of relegation when Harry Redknapp took over 18 months ago.

Redknapp said: “It’s fantastic. It’s been a terrific season, we’ve played some great football and we deserve it.

“We played some good stuff and I could see the goal coming. Crouchy was fantastic, led the line, unbelievable. It was a good performance.”

Crouch added: “I knew we had a fantastic squad and were capable of anything. But the top four have been the top four for so many years because they’ve been the most consistent.

“To break into the top four is a fantastic achievement. It’s probably one of the best nights I’ve been part of.”

Roberto Mancini said: “It’s disappointing because I think we played a good game, a game we had to win.

“I think we’ve had a good season because we’ll play in the Europa League next year and we’ve improved a lot.

“I’m disappointed with this result, but it’s football.”

Mancini had spoken with City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak immediately after the match.

“He’s disappointed because we lost, this is normal,” added the Italian.

“He said thank you to all the team, because for us it was a good season.”

When it has really mattered, City have come up short. From a run of matches – against Manchester United, Arsenal, Aston Villa and now Spurs – they have managed just one win.

Roberto Mancini remains adamant that City will challenge for the title next season but failure last night will increase the doubts about his position and a lack of Champions League football will once again see them struggle to attract the kind of players they now feel should be within their grasp.

The best they have been able to do for years here is getting excited about FA Cup fourth-round ties and the sense of occasion was unmistakable.

At times this season City have failed to take the initiative in key matches but they began with real purpose last night with, typically, their heartbeat Carlos Tevez leading the charge.

The Argentinian terrifies when he picks the ball up deep and he set the tone with an early charge, somehow wriggling past Benoit Assou-Ekotto before having a low effort blocked by Heurelho Gomes.

But Tottenham feel they are slowly turning around the ‘Luvvy’ tag earned through bitter experience, with Redknapp and Joe Jordan snarling at Kolo Toure’s attempts to get Assou-Ekotto a caution for a fierce challenge on Adam Johnson.

Peter Crouch failed to take the best chance of the opening period, thumping a header against the post from a couple of yards out from Gareth Bale’s in-swinging free kick from the right.

Redknapp and Jordan were further enraged when Ledley King’s header was rightly disallowed for the England hopeful climbing over Gareth Barry.

Gomes pulled off a fine save from a Johnson drive that flew through a crowd of bodies before Emmanuel Adebayor headed over from Craig Bellamy’s corner.

Toure had two headers from Bellamy corners, one flying over the other held by Gomes, either side of a Bale drilled half volley that flashed just wide.

The ping pong continued after the restart, with Johnson causing Assou-Ekotto even more problems and crossing only for the impressive Michael Dawson to hack away from Barry’s flick across goal.

Barry limped off with an ankle problem, and with City still down to 10 men, Bale lifted over the City defence and Jermain Defoe’s flick at goal was pawed away by goalkeeper Fulop.

Tom Huddlestone was lucky to escape a red card for a stamp on Nigel de Jong with referee Steve Bennett bizarrely awarding a yellow.

Toure has had his detractors since joining City from Arsenal but kept his team in the game with perfectly-timed leap to divert Younes Kaboul’s cross away from Crouch.

Assou-Ekotto burst though and hit a wonderful cross that Defoe and Crouch just failed to get a touch on and Crouch was denied by Fulop’s legs when he rose highest for Bale’s cross.

Tottenham were pressing more and more and when Kaboul took advantage of Bellamy’s slip and drilled a cross at the near post, Fulop could only block and Crouch beat Kompany to touch in from just a couple of yards out for his eighth of the season.

City had not created much for all their endeavour and there was no way back. Where will they go now?

Substitutions for Manchester City: Wright-Phillips for Johnson 72, Vieira for Barry 56, Santa Cruz for Bellamy 84.

Substitutions for Tottenham: Bentley for Lennon 71, Palacios for Modric 89, Pavlyuchencko for Defoe 81.

Referee: Steve Bennett.