Spurs slip up to hand Pompey final date

Frederic Piquionne celebrates breaking the deadlock at Wembley

Goals from Frederic Piquionne and Kevin-Prince Boateng have seen Portsmouth progress to the FA Cup final after battling their way past an unfortunate Tottenham Hotspur side at Wembley.

In a game hyped as being a walkover for Harry Redknapp’s men, cash-strapped Portsmouth were more than their equals with numerous chances throughout the 90 minutes. Piquionne was the wasteful culprit the majority of the time, but Spurs ‘keeper Gomes was also on top form. Spurs had more than their fair share of chances too, with Peter Crouch and Tom Huddlestone coming closest.

With neither side able to break the stalemate in normal time, it took just 8 minutes of extra time for on-loan Lyon striker Piquionne to put Avram Grant’s side ahead. An untimely slip on the much talked about Wembley surface from Spurs’ skipper Michael Dawson presented Piquionne with the easiest of his chances, and for once Gomes was left helpless. In a last throw of the dice, Redknapp brought on Eidur Gudjohnsen, no stranger to Wembley occasions after his days with Chelsea. Gudjohnsen had little impact, and in a last attempt to push forward and find a last gasp equalizer, gaps were left wide open in the Tottenham defence, and Aruna Dindane was allowed to burst through only to be brought down in the penalty area by Wilson Palacios, who received a yellow card as a result of the challenge. Perhaps in a different scenario and with a less sympathetic referee, the colour may have been a different one. Kevin-Prince Boateng confidently stepped up against his old side, and dispatched the spot kick to Gomes’ right side. Game over.

These were two teams bristling with similarities on the field, with Jermain Defoe, Peter Crouch and Niko Kranjcar all turning out against their former side, and with the aforementioned Boateng amongst the Portsmouth ranks, there was plenty of reason for niceties to be shared, both pre-match, and after the final whistle. Despite such obvious on-field comparisons, the two sides could be no different off the pitch, and nobody is ignorant to Pompey’s trials and tribulations behind the scenes this season. People talk about the romance of the FA Cup in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd rounds, but no one can doubt that a little bit of that old adage rubbed off on the boys in blue today.

With Chelsea awaiting the winners of this tie in the final on the 15th May, it was written in the script somewhere, deep inside, that Avram Grant would be reunited with the club where he introduced himself to English football. Now, can he go one step further and produce the greatest cup story of recent times by leading relegated, depleted Portsmouth to FA Cup glory?