Spurs 2-1 Leicester City (AET) | Robert’s verdict: “We deserve to be at Wembley”
Sun 14 April 2024, 17:00|
Tottenham Hotspur
There was no surprise to see a smile beam across Robert Vilahamn’s face as he underwent post-match duties at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium following a historic victory over Leicester City to book our place in the final of the Adobe Women’s FA Cup for the first time.
It didn’t get off to the perfect start in N17 on Sunday as Jutta Rantala gave the visitors an early advantage but, as in much of our journey in the competition so far, we showed spirit to come from behind, Jess Naz grabbing an all-important equaliser with seven minutes left of normal time.
As the game entered extra time and the clock ticked towards the 120-minute mark, it looked all but certain that we were heading to a second consecutive penalty shootout, but up stepped Martha Thomas to score another memorable goal at our world-class stadium.
It has been already an impressive first season at the Club for Robert but, once again, he will have another chance to make history in next month’s showpiece final at Wembley.
Speaking to The Review Show after the final whistle, the boss said: “I’m so happy. It was an amazing, amazing game, the fans were amazing, I just love this day.”
Reflecting on becoming the first Spurs manager to go to an FA Cup final in 33 years, he added: “I’m proud of it because we have done some really good stuff this year and this also shows how much we have developed and, I think, how the players come back, Jess’ goal and how the fans lifted her to that goal basically – I just love it.
“We struggled in the first half, Leicester did well actually, and, in the second half, we tried to change tactically but we didn’t have the energy to threaten them. So we made a few changes and the main thing was to have Jess as a threat in behind, to have players in the pockets, we overloaded as we wanted more players to attack and we had really good energy in the last 30-45 minutes.”
Since we began our journey in the FA Cup, Robert has been vocal on the history behind the competition and wanting to lead his side out at the national stadium, but he never expected to be achieving that at the end of his first full season at the Club.
“I’m always thinking positively but, I can definitely say, I didn’t expect us to be there this year.” the boss smiled. “But, wow, we are actually there and we deserve to be because we had some really amazing performances.”
