Tottenham Hotspur survived a furious comeback from Manchester United to reach the League Cup semi-finals with a 4-3 home win in a thrilling clash on Thursday.

Ange Postecoglou’s side struggled against a lackluster United. Dominic Solanke’s brace and a goal from Dejan Kulusevski gave them a 3-0 lead after 54 minutes.

But the home crowd were biting their fingernails as two terrible errors from their goalkeeper Fraser Forster allowed substitutes Joshua Zirkzee and Amad Diallo to give United hope.

There were 20 minutes left when Diallo made it 3-2 and United came close to equalizing several times before Son Heung-Min secured the equalizer in spectacular fashion by deceiving United keeper Altay Bayindir straight from a corner.

Jonny Evans still had time to score a third goal for United in stoppage time, but Tottenham held on in relief.

Tottenham are aiming for their first trophy since 2008, when they won the League Cup for the fourth time.

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Postecoglou’s side squandered a 2-0 lead to lose 4-3 to Chelsea in their last home game, and for a while it looked as if their innate ability to shoot themselves in the foot was about to come back to bite her.

However, this time the fans went home happy and Postecoglou is one step closer to his reputation of having secured the title in his second season with clubs.

Tottenham are at full speed due to injuries but still dominated Ruben Amorim’s side, who made five changes to the starting lineup that stunned Manchester City on Sunday. Wantaway star Marcus Rashford was also left out of the squad entirely for the second game in a row.

Solanke gave the hosts the lead in the 15th minute when Bayindir deflected a well-taken shot from Pedro and the striker fired the rebound off the post.

Bruno Fernandes had a couple of attempts and Rasmus Hojlund fired a volley wide, but Tottenham were comfortable and in control straight after the break when Lisandro Martínez could only turn a James Maddison cutback into the run of Kulusevski, who made no mistake made.

Solanke was allowed to dribble across the penalty area before firing a shot into the post in the 54th minute and the draw looked like a battle.

But then Forster played a loose pass outside his penalty area and United won the ball for Zirkzee to slot in.

Forster then compounded that mistake by taking ages to clear the ball and Diallo sliding in to charge down his kick and direct the ball into the net.

Tottenham were a bundle of nerves as United stormed forward, but captain Son brought calm with a corner that went over Bayindir’s head and ripped into the net.

Substitute Evans’ counterattack came too late to save United.