'Absolute madness': Football world in shock over historic Champions League drama

Tottenham are through to their first ever Champions League semi-final, eliminating Manchester City in one of the craziest games in the tournament’s history.

In the second leg of their quarter-final clash on Wednesday night, fans were left in shock over the frenetic start and finish to the game.

Manchester City won the match 4-3, but Tottenham progressed on away goals after the tie finished 4-4 on aggregate.

In crazy scenes that stunned the football world, a remarkable five goals were scored in the opening 21 minutes.

It was the most goals in the opening 21 minutes of a match in Champions League history.

Raheem Sterling put City in front in the fourth minute, receiving a ball from Kevin De Bruyne on the left flank and then cutting inside onto his right foot before beating Hugo Lloris with a beautiful, curling shot into the far corner.

Three minutes later though, Spurs drew level when City’s French defender Aymeric Laporte’s attempted clearance fell straight at the feet of Son Heung-min whose low shot flew in off the leg of City keeper Ederson.

Laporte was also at fault for Spurs’ second in the 10th minute when he gifted the ball to Lucas Moura, the Brazilian feeding Christian Eriksen who found Son, the South Korean finishing superbly into the far corner.

City responded immediately, however, as Sergio Aguero fed Bernardo Silva and the Portuguese winger’s left-foot shot deflected off Danny Rose and beat the wrong-footed Lloris to make it 2-2 on the night.

Sterling then struck again in the 21st minute to level the aggregate score, ghosting in at the back post to convert a low cross from De Bruyne that had zipped across the face of the goal.

Optus Sport described the opening minutes as ‘absolute madness’.

VAR drama

With four lead changes over 90 minutes and drama right until the full-time whistle, this was an all-time Champions League classic.

VAR proved decisive at the death, ruling out what appeared to be Sterling’s winning goal in added-on time after Fernando Llorente had made it advantage Spurs with 15 minutes remaining.

Sterling looked to have completed his hat-trick in the 93rd minute, slotting past Hugo Lloris after Aguero had pounced on a loose ball over the top.

But as the Etihad went wild, VAR checked the strike and Aguero was shown to be narrowly offside as he received the ball, sending the entire stadium into shock.

Spurs will take on Ajax in the semi-finals, while Manchester City have once again fallen short in Europe.

Liverpool beat Porto

Liverpool also returned to the semi-finals after comfortably beating Porto 4-1, with attacking trio Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino grabbing a goal each.

Virgil van Dijk also scored for Liverpool, which advanced 6-1 on aggregate after winning the first leg 2-0 at home.

Porto started well and showed signs it might be able to reverse the first-leg deficit, but Liverpool took control after Mane scored a goal in the 26th minute that was confirmed by video review after being initially disallowed for offside.

Salah added to the lead in the 65th and Eder Militao scored for Porto in the 69th, but Firmino ended any doubts in the 77th and Van Dijk closed the scoring in the 84th.

Liverpool, who lost in the final last season, will now face Barcelona.

with agencies