Guglielmo Vicario, a star for Tottenham, was criticized by Roy Keane for his part in Manchester City’s FA Cup victory, claiming Pep Guardiola’s team deliberately chose to target the ‘weak’ goalkeeper.
With a 1-0 victory on Friday night, City earned their first-ever win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, guaranteeing their spot in the competition’s fifth round.
After 88 minutes, Nathan Ake scored the game’s lone goal by poking the ball home after Vicario failed to hold onto Kevin de Bruyne’s corner.
Tottenham’s protests for a foul were turned down despite Ruben Dias’s presence in front of the Spurs goalkeeper.
Vicario was fouled, but former Manchester United captain Keane insisted the Italy international had not “commanded his area,” thus he was not persuaded.
Keane told ITV Sport, “The goalkeeper has to command that six yard area.”
“You come with violence,” said a goalkeeping coach I worked with years ago, and I loved it. You move in, take control of that area, and move people aside. You must communicate your presence to them. Be aggressive if defenders are pushing back against you. Take control of that space.
Despite several identical corner kick routines preceding to the goal, City was unable to cause Spurs any problems. After identifying Vicario as a “weak” link, Keane thought the defending champions were motivated to take advantage of him. Eventually, their perseverance paid off.
“They knew there was a weakness, they had worked on that,” Keane said.
We were also growing impatient with it; we reasoned that City might attempt a few shot corners, but they persisted and ultimately succeeded. “That goalie will be weak in that area,” they observed, glancing at him.
Ange Postecoglou, the manager of Spurs, chose not to challenge the referee’s ruling to uphold the goal.
“I’m sure they looked it over carefully, and the referee and VAR saw nothing wrong with it.” The choice has been made, and we must accept it. He stated.
He went on to say of Tottenham’s effort, “It was a tough game against a top side.” We gave up so late in the game after fighting so hard to stay in it. However, they were the superior side.
We had to put in a lot of effort since they can be painful at times, but overall we did a good job defending. We simply could not have passed the test.
We keep moving in the same direction; nothing about today has changed for us.
