On this day in 2010: Tottenham defeated Manchester City to reach the Champions League for the first time

Matt Davies5 May 2020

On this day in 2010, Tottenham secured their place in the Champions League for the first time with a 1-0 win against Manchester City at The Etihad.

With both sides chasing a top-four spot, Harry Redknapp's Tottenham delivered the decisive blow in the penultimate game of the season, Peter Crouch heading in the winner in the 82nd minute.

Roberto Mancini's side would have moved a point above Tottenham with a win, but it was Tottenham who prevailed; their 2010-11 Champions League campaign remains an iconic period in the club's history.

On the anniversary of such a memorable moment in Tottenham's recent history, Standard Sport takes a brief glance at some unforgettable Champions League games since.

Below are the list of incredible games...

Inter Milan 4-3 Tottenham 2010

We start with a game that came about directly as a result of Tottenham's victory over City.

Tottenham entered the game full of confidence after a win and a draw from their opening two Champions League games. However, they were handed a swift reality check, finding themselves 3-0 down after 15 minutes; 4-0 down and with ten men by half-time.

Despite losing the game, Gareth Bale's heroics will define the fixture forevermore. The Welshman - just 21-years-old at the time - introduced himself to the world with an inspired second-half hat-trick, three goals of genuine world-class quality.

Inter survived the scare emerging as 4-3 winners, but the performance proved both to Tottenham and Bale that they could compete at the elite level. For right-back Maicon, of whom the Welsh Wizard gave a torrid night, it was the beginning of the end.

Tottenham 3-1 Real Madrid 2017

We move to a totally different Tottenham team now, one with Mauricio Pochettino at the helm. This was another performance that announced the club to the rest of Europe.

Where Tottenham failed to make it past the group stages the season prior, they secured their place in the knockout stages with an emphatic 3-1 victory over Real Madrid just four games into the group.

A Dele Alli double fired Tottenham into an early lead, Christian Eriksen moving Tottenham 3-0 up after a delightful breakway. And although Cristiano Ronaldo pulled one back with ten minutes remaining, it was too little, too late.

Perhaps even more importantly, the so-called Wembley curse that had burdened the north London side for so long had certainly been dispelled at this point.

Manchester City 4-3 Tottenham 2019

What a remarkable game of football this was. It had everything: goals, disallowed goals, tears and triumph - and, of course, some VAR drama.

Tottenham entered the game with the advantage, 1-0 the aggregate score after a closely contested home leg. However, after losing Harry Kane to injury in the first game, City immediately levelled, Raheem Sterling scoring after just four minutes.

Then pursued one of the most incredible spells in Champions League history. Heung-min Son scored twice in three minutes to put Tottenham 2-1 up and into the ascendancy, before goals from Bernardo Silva and Sterling restored City's lead, 3-2 the score after just 21 minutes.

With Sergio Aguero and Fernando Llorente both scoring in the second-half, Tottenham were heading through on away goals. However, Sterling thought he had sealed the tie with an injury-time goal, only for VAR to rule it out for offside.

It was drama like you'd never seen. Manchester City were out. Tottenham went through to the Champions League semi-finals.

Ajax 2-3 Tottenham 2019

Tottenham fans thought the City game would never be topped, but oh how dearly they were wrong. To date, this is single-handedly the most iconic game of Tottenham's modern history.

Coming into the second leg in Amsterdam, Tottenham found themselves 1-0 after being comprehensively outplayed at home

Again with no Kane to rely on, Tottenham's dream of reaching the Champions League final took a bitter blow, goals from Matthijs de Ligt and Hakim Ziyech giving Ajax a 3-0 aggregate lead after just 35 minutes.

Few could have predicted Tottenham's second-half turnaround. Three goals from Moura, including a 96th minute winner - which almost certainly would have been the final kick of the game - sealed their place in the final.

An injured Kane sprinted the length of the pitch to celebrate with his team-mates, a crying Pochettino couldn't hide his emotions and fans across the world scoured the internet for tickets to Madrid.

Perhaps the greatest in Tottenham's history, one of the greatest in Champions League history. Iconic.

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