Conversely, when Spurs did have the opportunity to break, they were halted by some cynical tactics.  Zokora was breaking from midfield and slipped the ball past Denilson, who stepped into him with no attempt to play the ball, earning a yellow card, but preventing a chance on goal, even though the incident took place near the halfway line.  With the home players hitting the turf every time they were tackled, Alan Wiley, who had a decent enough game, was suckered into giving a few free-kicks which did not deserve the award.  Also, he ended up handing out five yellow cards to Tottenham players, while Arsenal's got away with similar offences.

The supply to the Tottenham front two was limited and the Arsenal back four picked off most of the balls up to them, but they battled away with the aim of making the most of what came their way.   Defoe got away when Hoyte kept the ball in with a header, but it dropped for Jermain, who tried o cross to the far post, but it drifted away and he might have been better trying to chip Almunia.  The best chance came when Ghaly got away on the right and pulled a cross back to the edge of the box for Malbranque to run onto it and throw a diving header at the ball.  it went a couple of feet wide, but could have beaten the keeper had it been on target. 

Adebayor went past a couple of challenges, but having done the hard bit, he sliced his shot very, very wide.  Giving the ball way frustrated some of the Spurs players and Jenas got a yellow when he clattered Diaby, but it was worse than it looked.  Gardner followed him into the book when a tackle on Traore found the ball gone and the Arsenal player went up in the air.  Keano was losing it, when he blasted the ref for Diaby's tackle on him, which was not much worse than Gardner's a minute or so earlier.

At half-time, Spurs warmed up YP Lee and wanted to bring him on, but someone had to tell them that he hadn't been named among the subs and therefore, Spurs just had the four to choose from.  Taking the field with the same eleven, Spurs probably wanted to keep Arsenal out for fifteen minutes and then push on.  The reality was that Jenas was playing only his second game back and Malbranque had tired after putting a lot of effort into the first period.

The second half started with corners for both sides, but all were poorly delivered and the first opportunity came for Adebayor, who made it into the area, but was shepherded wide and defended for a corner by Zokora.  Just after this, it all kicked off when Ghaly was halted in the area by Traore and the Egyptian slid into Senderos, while Adebayor scythed down Jenas.  Diaby raced in and threw an arm across Ghlay's throat, while the Spurs midfielder got up to confront him with there heads in close proximity.  A yellow card apiece resulted, with Adebayor getting away scot free.  Once more, Keane disagreed with the ref's decision in no uncertain terms, as Senderos hauled him down without punishment.

After 64 minutes, the change that probably turned the game happened.  Walcott was taken off and Rosicky came on to replace the disappointing boy wonder.  Also Clichy came on for Traore to add some more experience, but more importantly some fresh legs.

The pace of the new players caused Spurs problems and openings were created for Denilson, who shot well wide and then hit the side-netting, when he should have crossed.  Rosicky changed feet to leave Zokora tackling thin air and bringing him down, being the third player to go into the book.  With Gardner committing a couple more fouls and being on a yellow already, Jol brought on Ricardo Rocha to add some experience in the face of the head of steam the home side were building up.  Dawson was being the usual rock he is in central defence, but when Aliadiere went down by throwing himself to the floor as Daws went into the challenge, we all held our breath, but Mr. Wiley saw what was intended and waved play on.

 With the pressure all one way, it was perhaps just a matter of time before Arsenal scored. Rosicky's shot was beaten out by Robinson, but the bal came straight back in and  the Czech put in Adebayor to score.  The goal saw Diaby substituted and Fabregas brought onto try and force Spurs back further.   However, Jol changes the dynamic of the Spurs team by putting a big man on up front with Mido replacing the tiring Malbranque and dropping Keane back behind the front two and Huddlestone came on for Ghaly to add strength and a wider range of passing to the team.

Suddenly Spurs started creating chances.  Dawson nodded Jenas' cross over the top, Mido looked keen to impress in what the press were billing as his last game for Tottenham and when Dawson knocked on a Robinson long ball, a free kick gave the Egyptian the chance to prove his worth.

With the scores level, the match was heading for extra time.  Adebayor pulled a shot well wide, Defoe nearly got onto the end of a ball into the area, but Almunia beat him to it and when Mido shifted the ball through Senderos' legs and shot, it looked like he might have won it in injury time.  However, the ball went a foot wide and with it maybe Spurs' best chance of going to Cardiff.  With Arsenal now hitting Spurs on the break to try and avoid extra time, Denilson struck a hard shot that Robinson turned up over the bar.  The Spurs keeper had to repeat the save when he palmed away Toure's shot from the left and Senderos headed it back towards goal, bur Dawson cleared the danger.

At the end of 90 minutes, Spurs had achieved parity and the game went into extra time, with away goals not kicking in until the end of the added half hour.  With that in mind, Tottenham needed a goal.  Pushing for it, they left space at the back and Fabregas was the first to test Robinson with a shot straight at him and then Denilson tried his luck, with Robbo knocking it down and grabbing it at the second attempt.

With half time approaching, a cross from Denilson on the right was played in and Rocha appeared to want to head the ball away when it was just a foot off the floor.  His header went about a yard and he could not get up again quick enough to deny Aliadiere a shot that he powered in between Robinson and the near post.  It was a lead that Tottenham would need to peg back to take the game to penalties.

Defoe had one last effort go wide, but it was not enough for Tottenham.  They had taken Arsenal all the way and forced extra time, but losing the two goal lead at home was what had cost Tottenham.  Yes, the players need to learn and with their opponents having lost three League Cup semi-finals prior to this, it is not the end for them.  For all the praise for the Arsenal team, Tottenham had four members of their regular first team missing and had a very young average age.  it is not all as bad as we might think.