Conte’s men failed at the Championship boarder when those of Guardiola made the trade in Peterborough.
The matches follow each other and are not alike for Tottenham. Big winners at Leeds on Saturday (0-4), in a defeat that precipitated the dismissal of Marcelo Bielsa, Spurs were beaten in extra time at Middlesbrough in the FA Cup round of 16 (1-0). It was young striker Joshua Coburn (19), a pure product of the academy, who delivered the 8th in the Championship in the 107th minute of play against a London team that had hardly been changed. This is the second headliner to fall ahead of “Boro” after Manchester United in the previous round.
At the same time, Manchester City had less trouble getting out of the Peterborough trap. On the road to the bottom of the second division, the English champion won 2-0 thanks to goals from Jack Grealish (60th) and Riyad Mahrez (67th), who is already having his most prolific career season ( 19 goals in all competitions). Note that the captain’s armband of the Citizens had been entrusted to the Ukrainian Oleksandr Zinchenko for the occasion.
Finally, in the last game of the evening, Patrick Vieira’s Crystal Palace got out of the trap of another Championship resident, Stoke City (2-1). Dutchman Jairo Riedewald, who replaced first scorer Cheikhou Kouyaté (53rd), scored the goal of the Eagles’ qualification for the quarter-finals of a competition where Vieira is undefeated for 18 matches now, he who starts this season on the Palace bench.
