Mauricio Pochettino insists he was not surprised by Rochdale after the League One basement side forced a replay in our FA Cup fifth round tie at Spotland by with a late injury time equaliser to force a 2-2 draw. Rochdale went ahead on the stroke of half time when cup goal scoring hero Ian Henderson was at it again when h finished a good counter attacking move to score his 6th of this seasons competition.
Spurs eventually kicked in to life and levelled just before the hour mark through FA Cup debutant Lucas Moura. Pochettino then rung the changes from the bench as we searched for a winner and Erik Lamela, Dele Alli and Harry Kane were all brought into the fray and when Alli was brought down inside the penalty area, it gave Harry Kane the chance to score from the spot, from which he made no mistake and in doing so equalled Alan Gilzean’s scoring record of 133 goals for the club
However there was another twist left and Steve Davies struck in the third minute of injury time to earn Rochdale a trip to Wembley. Pochettino said he was not surprised by Rochdale’s fighting spirit.
He said:I was not surprised. This competition is completely different. Newport gave us a fantastic game and they lost their next game in the league 5-0.
He added: “The motivation is always massive. It’s not easy to play this type of game. Of course we wanted to win but we have the possibly to win. He went on to say: “We have all the squad fit and it will be another game to provide players with the chance to compete on Wembley and we have the possibility to reach the quarter finals”
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