Man City 3-3 Spurs | Ange’s verdict: “The second half was outstanding”

Ange Postecoglou told the players to believe in themselves during his half-time team talk at City - and they delivered a second half display worthy of a point at the toughest venue in the Premier League.

We started well and led early through a classic counter-attacking goal as Heung-Min Son latched onto Deki Kulusevski’s pass as we broke from City’s corner before smashing a shot through Edersen.

City - 24 wins in 25 matches at the Etihad this calendar year ahead of this weekend – responded as you’d expect, piled on the pressure, levelled within minutes when Sonny could do little but divert Julian Alvarez’s free-kick into his own net, went ahead through Phil Foden, hit the woodwork twice and saw Erling Haaland miss the target twice from close range.

The second half was a different story as the teams traded blows - Gio Lo Celso fired beautifully into the bottom corner from 20 yards for 2-2 (69 minutes), Jack Grealish put City back in front at 3-2 (81 minutes) only for Deki to head home Brennan Johnson’s cross for 3-3 in the 90th minute - another thriller at the Etihad…

Speaking to our Review Show, Ange told us: “First half, we were lucky to be in the game. We lacked a bit of belief and conviction. They are a fantastic team and could have blown us away, a bit like us against Villa last week, where we missed chances and that keeps the opposition in the game.

“In the first half we were a threat on the counter, but we gave a lot of the ball away, not through any other reason than ourselves, really. That didn’t allow us to get any foothold into the game, a team of that quality will punish you.

“We were still in the game at half-time, so that gave me a chance to give the players some belief in terms of just being themselves and backing themselves a bit more.

“I thought the second half was outstanding, not letting the game get away from us, hanging in there, making the game uncomfortable for City. At no stage could they just control the game, we were pressing, keeping the ball and it’s because of that I’m really pleased we got our reward.

“In the second half, whenever we got into that front third, we were always causing problems. We scored three quality goals, which you have to against a team like City. Sonny’s finish was exceptional, Gio was one of the players in the second half who really stood up. Pierre coming on helped us. Deki’s header was brilliant.

“Against a team like City, you’re not going to create a lot of chances, particularly here, so when they come along you have to show quality to take them. Now we’ve got the rewards for that, I’m sure it will help the players in our process in continuing to believe in the team we want to be.”