Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur scored an incredible five goals inside the opening 21 minutes of their UEFA Champions League quarter-final second leg – sending social media into a meltdown.
With Spurs 1-0 up from the first leg in London last week, both teams threw any notion of “keeping it tight at the back” firmly out of the window as they struck five goals before the first half at the Eithad was even mid-way through.
City were first off the mark when the in-form Raheem Sterling was picked out unmarked on the left by Kevin De Bruyne on four minutes, then cutting inside to curl a shot into the bottom corner past the despairing dive of Hugo Lloris. The tie was level at 1-1, but not for long as Spurs’ own man of the moment, Son Heung-Min, grabbed a crucial away goal for his team three minutes later, collecting a pass diverted into his path by City defender Aymeric Lapore, then shooting low under the left leg of Ederson. Incredibly, Son scored again just three minutes later when Spurs again captalized on a mistake by Lapore, who was dispossessed before Son curled home a lovely strike from the edge of the box. Spurs were 2-1 up on the night and 3-1 on aggregate, and City needed to score at least three to win.
They wasted little time in getting one back, however, as Tottenham marking was again non-existent on the right, where Bernardo Silva collected the ball and fired through Danny Rose’s legs and past Lloris. Just 11 minutes gone and two goals apiece.
But they were not done there, as Sterling put his team in front in the game when he turned home from a De Bruyne cross when unmarked at the back post. City were 3-2 up on the night, but with the tie at 3-3 they were behind on away goals, so still needed another heading into half-time.
The goalfest, unsurprisingly, blew a lot of people’s minds on Twitter – and understandably set a new Champions League record.