Story of the Match
Spurs 1-0 Portsmouth

Team news

Eight changes - first start for Sarr, Forster back in
Antonio Conte made eight changes from the midweek win at Crystal Palace, with the front three of Bryan Gil, Heung-Min Son and Harry Kane keeping their places. There was a first start for midfielder Pape Matar Sarr but we did have to make a late change.
After picking up a knock in the warm-up, Yves Bissouma was replaced in the team by Oliver Skipp, with Academy attacking midfielder Romaine Mundle added to the bench - his first appearance in a competitive first team matchday squad.

Spurs connections in Pompey squad
Portsmouth arrived with Simon Bassey in charge as interim manager following the departure of previous boss Danny Cowley on Monday.
They had two of our former Academy players in their ranks - defender Connor Ogilvie was in their starting line-up while goalkeeper Josh Oluwayemi was on the bench. Another of our youngsters, Dane Scarlett, is on loan at Pompey but was unable to play against us under the terms of his loan deal.
The report...
Harry Kane struck the only goal of the game to see us progress in our FA Cup third round tie with Portsmouth on Saturday afternoon.
Captain on the day, Kane scored his 265th Spurs goal to move within one of Jimmy Greaves’ all-time record, rifling home five minutes into the second half at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Pompey, who arrived here 12th in League One and without a win since October, were backed by an impressive away support in the North Stand, although they didn’t have too much to cheer as we dominated throughout the game despite the narrow margin of victory.
The pattern was set early on as we dictated possession but found it tricky to break down Pompey’s massed ranks, as they put all 11 players behind the ball every time we attacked, particularly in the first half.
In fact, there was just one shot on target in that first period and it went to the visitors, Reeco Hackett’s acrobatic effort pushed away by Fraser Forster.
At the other end, just before half-time, Pape Matar Sarr and Heung-Min Son both fired wide with efforts from distance as we looked for a way through.
It almost came four minutes after the break, only for Emerson Royal’s looping header at the back post to hit the far upright and bounce back into the arms of goalkeeper Joshua Griffiths.
But a minute later we were ahead, Kane playing a one-two with Ryan Sessegnon before hitting a sumptuous 20-yard right-foot curler into the back of the net.
It should have been 2-0 on 68 minutes, but Oliver Skipp blasted over from 12 yards out.
The visitors were pegged back in their own half as we had almost complete control of the game, apart from a flurry of late attacks from Pompey, but they came to nothing and we moved on to round four, the draw for which is Sunday afternoon around 4pm.



The key moment
There’s only one place to start and that’s the winning goal from Harry Kane. It was the one moment of real class in a game made difficult for us by Portsmouth’s packed defence and came at a good time too, just after the interval. There didn’t look too much on when Kane picked up the ball out on the left edge of the area, 25 yards out, but he fizzed a pass into Ryan Sessegnon, received the return and instinctively hit a drive which curled out of reach of Pompey keeper Joshua Griffiths. A superb goal.

















Match data...
Spurs (3-4-3): Forster, Tanganga, Sanchez, Davies, Royal, Skipp, Sarr, Sessegnon (Spence 77), Bryan (Devine 90+2), Kane (c), Son, Substitutes (not used): Lloris, Doherty, Romero, Lenglet, Hojbjerg, White, Mundle.
Portsmouth (3-4-3): Griffiths, Morrison, Raggett (c), Ogilvie, Swanson, Tunnicliffe (Thompson 75), Morrell (Jacobs 85), Hume, Hackett (Koroma 75), Bishop (Pigott 75), Dale (Curtis 87). Substitutes (not used): Oluwayemi, Freeman, Dockerill, Payce.
Goal: Spurs - Kane 50.
Yellow cards: Spurs - Davies; Portsmouth - Thompson.
Referee: Thomas Bramall.
Attendance: 60,161.
Weather: Light rain showers, moderate breeze, 11 degrees at kick-off.
Star of the show - Bryan Gil
Notable mentions for Oliver Skipp and Pape Matar Sarr, who were the dominant pair in the midfield battle, but Bryan Gil’s display probably just shaded them. The Spaniard kept his place following a fine performance at Crystal Palace on Wednesday and once again produced a lively display. Always wanting the ball, full of energy and linking up nicely at times with Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son, it was another eye-catching game for the forward.

Stats a fact

History repeating...
One incredible standout fact from this afternoon is that Harry Kane scored his 265th Spurs goal on the same date that Jimmy Greaves scored his 265th. Greavsie’s came in a 5-0 FA Cup win against Bradford City on 7 January 1970, when he scored twice. Surely it's just a matter of time now before Kane becomes our top goalscorer of all time...

We go forth again...
Victory over Portsmouth saw us continue our fine form in the FA Cup third round. In the last 16 years, we’ve only failed to reach the fourth round on one occasion - when we lost 2-0 at Arsenal in 2013/14.
Cristian's comment...
Cristian Stellini, Antonio Conte's assistant, told SPURSPLAY: "We’ve progressed to the next round and that’s all we wanted. We are happy because played a good game, we didn’t risk anything, so it’s an important game for us. Portsmouth created a tough game because they were compact, they were tough in the box, and we didn’t have many chances to score in the first half. We had some shots from outside the box, but they were good. We know this because when you play this type of game, you have to be good with the ball, most of the game was in our hands and when we found the goal, the space was bigger.
“The three central defenders were good, also Pape Sarr and Skippy in the middle, Skippy ran a lot into the box to try to find some solutions, had one great opportunity, was unlucky, but I liked this situation. Now, he’s coming back. We know Skippy, in the first three months we were here, he helped us a lot. We want Skippy again, and it’s nice he can play this type of match and we can count on him. We also gave more minutes to Djed Spence, he’s increasing his progression and improving a lot, and we hope we can recover more players.”

What it means...
We’re in the hat for round four! The draw will take place on Sunday (8 January) afternoon, before the Manchester City v Chelsea clash on the BBC, at approximately 4pm. We will be ball number seven. The fourth round is scheduled to be played between Friday 27 January and Monday 30 January.
Next up...
After a hectic run of games following our return to action after the World Cup, we now have a clear midweek ahead of a huge north London derby next weekend. Arsenal will arrive in N17 top of the Premier League table, five points clear of Manchester City and we’ll be looking to reduce our 11-point deficit on them. The game takes place on Sunday 15 January, kick-off at 4.30pm, and will be shown live on Sky Sports.
