Solanke inspires unlikely Spurs comeback to draw against City | OneFootball

Manchester City let a two-goal lead at half-time slip at away to a Tottenham Hotspur side inspired by Dominic Solanke in the second half.

Despite the midweek victory over Eintracht Frankfurt there was little atmosphere at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Indeed, it sounded almost funereal in North London perhaps with fans realising with the team's injury crisis a game against a Manchester City team trying to chase down rivals Arsenal wasn't one they were looking forward to and even a win wouldn't be completely satisfying.

That may explain the strange opening goal as well. Yves Bissouma lost the ball inside his own half allowing Rayan Cherki to run forward under virtually no challenge before passing the ball into the net. Besides the away fan's cheers it was silent in the stadium.

Cherki almost made it 2-0 with a piece of magic as he danced past the Spurs defenders before having a shot that Guglielmo Vicario did well to keep out and that City didn't even earn a corner from.

Spurs showed some brief signs of improvement towards the end of the half but again Spurs were caught out just before the break with Bernardo Silva then doing well to set up Antoine Semenyo for his fourth goal since joining from Bournemouth.

There were boos at half-time for the home team but they were much improved at the start of the second half, pulling a goal back eight minutes after the restart.

Dominic Solanke showed great strength to brush Abdukodir Khusanov aside but as the striker was about to shoot, Marc Guéhi put his foot in the way which diverted the ball into the back of the net. Pep Guardiola seemed unhappy with the situation, feeling like Solanke's attempted shot before the defender's touch was a foul but the goal stood – and was later awarded to the Spurs striker by the Premier League.

That goal seemed to put the wind in Spurs' sails and all of a sudden the atmosphere was completely different.

Tottenham levelled things in the 70th minute after good work saw Conor Gallagher whip in a cross from the right that Solanke diverted into the net scorpion-kick style – no one would have predicted that happening 45 minutes into this game.

Indeed, all of a sudden it seemed like Spurs could go on to win it with Gigi Donnarumma having to tip Xavi Simons' deflected effort over the bar.

City did eventually reassert control of the game with substitute Tijjani Reijnders heading just wide with 84 minutes gone in the game.

Besides that though, there were few chances for City to win a game they needed to win to keep themselves four points behind Gunners but instead Pep Guardiola sees his side six points off the league leaders.

Meanwhile, Thomas Frank saw some real fighting spirit from his players – something he will be hoping his side can build on ahead of a tricky run of league fixtures.