Tottenham 1-0 Burnley: Pedro Porro sends Spurs to FA Cup fourth round

Tottenham Hotspur booked their place in the fourth round of the FA Cup with a 1-0 win over Burnley on Friday evening.

Spurs were well below their best for the vast majority of the contest but an unbelievable strike from Pedro Porro late on proved the difference for Ange Postecoglou’s side.

Burnley did have chances, with Zeki Amdouni missing two glorious opportunities, but the hosts were rarely under much pressure as they sealed their place in the next round.

Both sides began with real energy, Tottenham buzzed around Burnley’s box but were regularly met with fierce resistance, while Wilson Odobert stung Guglielmo Vicario’s gloves from range.

Richarlison dragged wide shortly before the 10-minute mark, before Johnson’s curling effort from the edge of the box drew a smart save from Arijanet Muric in the Burnley net, but that was as bright as things got in the first half.

Spurs quickly started to dominate possession, pressing Burnley with immense energy to recover the ball high up the pitch, but the visitors nearly took the lead against the run of play when Amdouni got in behind the Spurs defence, only to send his strike soaring over the bar.

While Ange Postecoglou’s side had close to 70% of the ball in the opening half, their attack fell flat after the early opportunities. Muric was not particularly busy after denying Johnson, with Burnley’s battling defence standing firm.

The home fans were audibly frustrated as Spurs continued to struggle in attack. Burnley sat deep and allowed plenty of strikes from distance, but Muric was not worried by any of them.

Destiny Udogie’s cross set up Johnson for a nice volley shortly after the hour mark, but the strike didn’t ask much of Burnley’s stopper, who comfortably pushed it away.

Spurs needed a moment of magic to get through Burnley, and they got exactly that with an absolute monster of a strike from Porro with 11 minutes to go.

Just after Richarlison wasted a good chance to score, Porro won back possession and unleashed a ferocious strike from outside the box which fizzed right into the top corner of Muric’s net. A truly stunning strike.

With 97 minutes on the clock, Hannes Delcroix missed a good chance but Burnley’s best effort came from the corner that followed. Muric was up attacking and headed the ball on to Amdouni, who was alone in the six-yard box, but the striker could not contort his body to control his effort and sliced wide from point-blank range with the final touch of the game.