Penalty king in happy return

IT JUST had to be Dele Alli.

On his return to Milton Keynes, Dele was the matchwinning penalty hero who finally sent Tottenham into the last 16.

Spurs’ captain for the night took and scored the decisive penalty after Paulo Gazzaniga had made up for his earlier gaffe by saving two penalties from Etienne Capoue and Domingos Quina in the shootout.

This clash had been moved to Dele’s old club with Wembley unavailable and Spurs’ new home still not ready.

And he had to score twice from 12 yards to ensure it was a happy homecoming.

After Spurs trailed to Isaac Success’s opener, he equalised before Erik Lamela fired Spurs into an 86th-minute lead.

But a howler from Gazzaniga allowed Watford’s former Spurs midfielder Capoue to equalise before Mauricio Pochettino’s men eventually progressed on penalties. The north Londoners teasing ball across goal to finish a move he had started. But the first-half was largely like the atmosphere created by the three sets of fans – Spurs, Watford and MK Dons – surreal, subdued and more like a pre-season friendly.

Many were still returning to their seats when Success latched on to Kiko Femenia’s pass and smashed the opener 41 seconds after the restart.

Femenia threatened a second soon after but going behind sparked Spurs into life.

And their pressure paid off when sub Christian Kabasele brought down Dele, earning the defender a red card just three minutes after he had come on, and the England star levelled from the spot.

Then Lamela looked to have won it with an impudent chip to cap a flying Spurs breakaway.

But Gazzaniga let Capoue’s skidding effort slip through his hands after a deflection off Ben Davies to force a shootout.