Ange Postecoglou saluted his injury-hit squad after Tottenham Hotspur avoided a late wobble to edge out Manchester United 4-3 in a rip-roaring Carabao Cup quarter-final tie.
Spurs were in cruise control when Dominic Solanke rifled home his second in the 54th minute to add to his first-half opener and Dejan Kulusevski’s effort 46 seconds into the second half.
Tottenham’s back-up goalkeeper Fraser Forster pressed the self-destruct button, though, as his two errors set up a nervy finale.
First United substitute Joshua Zirkzee tapped in after Forster’s pass out from the back had been intercepted before Amad Diallo blocked his clearance to make it 3-2 with 20 minutes left.
Postecoglou’s men were teetering on the brink of collapse at this point, but captain Son Heung-min scored directly from a corner with two minutes left despite protestations from Altay Bayindir.
It ensured Jonny Evans’ stoppage-time header was a mere consolation as Spurs, without 10 players, marched on to set up a semi-final against Liverpool and took a big step towards winning a first trophy since 2008.
It should have been a lot more comfortable than it ended up being but having said that, I still can’t get away from the fact this group of players is doing an unbelievable job
“We played so well, well in control of the game. It’s the way our season has gone a little bit, we self-inflicted some pain on ourselves and then we had to scramble to get a foothold again,” Postecoglou reflected.
“It should have been a lot more comfortable than it ended up being but having said that, I still can’t get away from the fact this group of players is doing an unbelievable job at the moment to get us through this.
“We’re in a semi-final of a cup competition, so I think that’s something to reflect this progress for us and we’ve got an opportunity now, home and away to get to a final and we’ve earned that opportunity.
“It’s one to look forward to, but we’ve got important games starting this week, starting Sunday (against Liverpool), that we’ve still got to get through and the mentality the boys are showing at the moment, we’re going to tackle these games in the same way we’ve tackled the ones in recent times.”
Forster has impressed since first-choice Gugliemo Vicario suffered a fractured ankle in the 4-0 win at Manchester City last month, but provided unnecessary drama with two careless errors.
The 37-year-old had his slack pass intercepted by Bruno Fernandes, who teed up Zirkzee for a 63rd-minute tap-in before he was closed down too quickly by Diallo, but Postecoglou defended his back-up stopper.
Postecoglou added: “He is disappointed because he was outstanding for us.
“The first one probably affected his confidence a little bit and he lost a bit of belief and the second one compounded it, but he is a big boy mate and he is another one who has stood up for us big time in this period.
“I can’t speak highly enough of this group of players. Again tonight we had 10 players from our list unavailable for one reason or another. We had a day’s rest less than Man United.
“We are not just getting through games, we are still maintaining our level of football. As I keep saying, we will get to some smoother waters at some point but this period is going to see us have enormous growth.”
Ruben Amorim suffered the third defeat of his Man United tenure but had no issue with Tottenham’s fourth goal.
“I never speak about referee’s and I will not start now,” Amorim insisted.
“The lads did a great job to recover and we were so near the draw, so near and it could make the difference because we still have time to win the game, but then the fourth goal was really hard for us.”
