CROUCHIE HEADS IN ABEUTY!
1 Crouch 82 PL, City of Manchester Stadium, May 5, 2010 Att: 47,370
THE match where Peter Crouch scored a goal worth £30million.
The stakes were high as the sides met at Eastlands on the penultimate day of the 2009-10 season.
Spurs went into the match in fourth – the final Champions League place – a point ahead of their hosts.
The Champions League was the target set by City bosses when Roberto Mancini took over from Mark Hughes the previous December – and to keep that dream alive they had to beat Spurs.
The north Londoners had not played in a meaningful European competition since lifting the UEFA Cup in 1984, but, under Harry Redknapp, they stayed in touch with the Premier League’s top sides and reached the FA Cup semi- final, where they were beaten by Portsmouth.
Spurs responded to that defeat by winning three of their next four in the Premier League, setting up a possible Champions League decider in Manchester.
Both sides went for the win and most of the chances in the first half went to City.
Crouch smacked a header off the post from Gareth Bale’s curving cross to the far post and Ledley King had his celebrations cut short by the referee’s whistle after he found the back of the net with a header.
After the break, City relied on keeper Marton Fulop to keep the scoreline blank after Jermain Defoe aimed a shot at the bottom corner and the Hungarian blocked a Crouch header with his legs.
The breakthrough finally came with eight minutes left.
Younes Kaboul fired a cross towards the near post and this time Fulop could not save City.
He failed to hang onto the ball and it looped into the path of Crouch, who lifted his header into the roof of the net in front of the travelling fans.
Crouch recalled the goal as one of the highlights of his career.
He remembered it as “probably the best feeling I’ve ever had on a football pitch, seeing all the players celebrating and the fans’ faces... knowing my goal had done it was a really special feeling”.