Carling Cup: Spurs deny magnificent Burnley

Tottenham left it very late to reach a second successive Carling Cup final after a dramatic 3-2 defeat to Burnley at Turf Moor.

Spurs were heading out of the competition on away goals until Roman Pavlyuchenko and Jermain Defoe scored in the last three minutes of extra time to clinch a 6-4 aggregate win and a spot in the final at Wembley.

The competition rules state that away goals only come into effect after extra time — otherwise the Championship side would have been celebrating one of the most remarkable comebacks in cup history.

Despite the three-goal cushion they brought into this match, Harry Redknapp's men looked nervous, indecisive and desperately short of confidence.

The home side opened the scoring after 34 minutes when Robbie Blake caught out Spurs' debutant keeper Ben Alnwick with a fine curling free-kick from 25 yards.

Blake then created the Clarets' second on 73 minutes as he showed nimble footwork to beat two Spurs defenders and fire a low cross to the far post, where Chris McCann was unmarked to tap the ball home.

And, amazingly, sub Jay Rodriguez banged in Burnley's third goal with just two minutes left in normal time to level the aggregate score at 4-4.

With Burnley seemingly set to survive extra-time unscathed, Spurs caught the Championship club with a sucker punch with less than three minutes left on the clock when substitute Pavlyuchenko rifled home a left-foot shot from six yards.

And then, with Burnley pressing for a goal to take the tie to penalties, Defoe drilled home on the counter-attack to keep Spurs' hopes of retaining the cup alive.

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