Spurs 1 Boro 1 (Boro win 5-4 on penalties)
Last updated : 05 January 2004 By Holgate
Middlesbrough are through to the semi-finals after beating Spurs 5-4 on penalties in a thrilling Carling Cup game.
On a freezing cold evening in London it did not take long for the game to heat up as Darren Anderton ended Middlesbrough's run of seven clean sheets after just 63 seconds when Colin Cooper failed to clear Stephen Carr's cross and he swept the ball home from just inside the box.
Spurs could have doubled their lead on 19 minutes when Ledley King headed Anderton's in-swinging corner goalwards only to be denied by a superb fingertip save from Mark Schwarzer.
Middlesbrough should have levelled the game on the stroke of half-time when Michael Ricketts missed a golden opportunity. He picked up a long throughball from Danny Mills, shrugged off the attentions of Anthony Gardner and rounded Kasey Keller before firing the ball into the side-netting.
From this point on the Teessiders went on to dominate the game. However, both teams focused more on attack the longer the game went on. This made for a highly entertaining second half.
Juninho was denied an equaliser by the excellent Keller. Then Ricketts ensured the game went into extra time when he pounced on a loose ball in the box and drilled the ball past Keller into the bottom corner.
He could have wrapped things up in injury time with a powerful close-range header only to again be denied by Keller who tipped the ball over.
Second-half substitute Stewart Downing almost sneaked a winner when his volley from the edge of the box was saved superbly by Keller in the dying moments but the game ended a draw only for Boro to eventually clinch success in the shoot-out with Franck Queudrue scoring the vital sixth penalty.
Goal Attempts: Spurs 22 Boro 18
On Target: Spurs 11 Boro 10
Free-kicks conceded: Spurs 16 Boro 16
Team:
Schwarzer, Mills, Southgate, Cooper (Nemeth 80), Queudrue, Mendieta, Boateng, Zenden, Juninho, Maccarone (Downing 46), Ricketts
Not Used: Jones (g), Riggott and Davies
