Jose Mourinho was relieved after Tottenham's late show saw them beat Wycombe 4-1 in the FA Cup fourth round.
Spurs looked like they would be taken to extra time by the Championship strugglers as they missed a host of chances to kill the game after Gareth Bale's goal had cancelled out Fred Onyedinma's surprise opener for Wycombe.
Even the introduction of Harry Kane and Son Heung-min could not do the trick until the final five minutes when a Harry Winks strike and a quickfire Tanguy Ndombele double sent Mr Mourinho's men through to a fifth-round tie at Everton.
The late goals were a blessing for Mourinho, whose side are back in Premier League action on Thursday when champions Liverpool visit north London.
"I knew that the game was going to be difficult - we started preparing for the game by showing the players what they did a few years ago at White Hart Lane," Mr Mourinho said, referencing the 2017 fourth-round tie which Spurs won 4-3 at the death.
"Six of these players and the manager are still in this team.
"So that, I think, was a good start and then we prepared for the game knowing it could be hard and it was. It's not easy to handle their style of play.
"If you don't score goals, they stay in the game and it was great for us to score in minute 85 because that gave us the possibility of not playing extra time, which would have been not good for us."
The game would have been a different story had Bale been more clinical in front of goal, as he missed several chances to add more goals to his tally.
But it was still a noteworthy night for the Wales international as he completed the first 90 minutes of his second spell at the club on his first appearance since December 23.
"It was good, was good," Mr Mourinho said. "Some good movement. Some one and against one, beating people, attacking people, creating chances. Of course scoring a goal.
"Apart from that I never felt he couldn't play the 90 minutes. I never felt that I needed to change him and that is good. Of course the Championship is a good, competitive level and the aggression is high and the intensity is good. So, I'm happy.
"We had some good performances from the boys that started the game. Of course Winks, man of the match, which is very much deserved because I thought he was very, very good in everything he did, apart from the goal.
"The goal is just a very small important detail but happy because I think the attitude of the team was very professional and it's the kind of game that even if we lose because we don't take chances and they score in the last minutes, let's say that, I wouldn't be sad because of the very professional performance."
For Wycombe, the dream of a shock was a realistic one for 85 minutes as they held Spurs.
But, in their first game back after a Covid-19 outbreak, Gareth Ainsworth's men ran out of steam.
"I am a little bit deflated," the Wycombe boss said. "It was a tough last five minutes which reflects the scoreline, the other 85 minutes reflects a 2-1 scoreline. It was tough on the players.
"We have only trained one day in the last eight days because of Covid-19 and the snow yesterday. I am proud of them."
When not managing Wycombe, Mr Ainsworth sings in the rock band The Cold Blooded Hearts and he says Mr Mourinho will always be welcome to collaborate.
"Absolutely - he said he might not be able to sing but I bet he can play a mean tambourine," he said. "He is a top guy and a great manager. He has given me a lot of respect tonight and I am humbled to be on the same touchline as him today."
Chef Nobu's advice for eating sushi
“One mistake people always make is adding extra wasabi. There is no need for this, because it should already be there between the rice and the fish.
“When eating nigiri, you must dip the fish – not the rice – in soy sauce, otherwise the rice will collapse. Also, don’t use too much soy sauce or it will make you thirsty. For sushi rolls, dip a little of the rice-covered roll lightly in soy sauce and eat in one bite.
“Chopsticks are acceptable, but really, I recommend using your fingers for sushi. Do use chopsticks for sashimi, though.
“The ginger should be eaten separately as a palette cleanser and used to clear the mouth when switching between different pieces of fish.”
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Company%C2%A0profile
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The biog
Born: High Wycombe, England
Favourite vehicle: One with solid axels
Favourite camping spot: Anywhere I can get to.
Favourite road trip: My first trip to Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan. The desert they have over there is different and the language made it a bit more challenging.
Favourite spot in the UAE: Al Dhafra. It’s unique, natural, inaccessible, unspoilt.
Gothia Cup 2025
4,872 matches
1,942 teams
116 pitches
76 nations
26 UAE teams
15 Lebanese teams
2 Kuwaiti teams
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
The years Ramadan fell in May
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
What is a Ponzi scheme?
A fraudulent investment operation where the scammer provides fake reports and generates returns for old investors through money paid by new investors, rather than through ligitimate business activities.
Rock in a Hard Place: Music and Mayhem in the Middle East
Orlando Crowcroft
Zed Books
Tonight's Chat on The National
Tonight's Chat is a series of online conversations on The National. The series features a diverse range of celebrities, politicians and business leaders from around the Arab world.
Tonight’s Chat host Ricardo Karam is a renowned author and broadcaster with a decades-long career in TV. He has previously interviewed Bill Gates, Carlos Ghosn, Andre Agassi and the late Zaha Hadid, among others. Karam is also the founder of Takreem.
Intellectually curious and thought-provoking, Tonight’s Chat moves the conversation forward.
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more from Janine di Giovanni
How green is the expo nursery?
Some 400,000 shrubs and 13,000 trees in the on-site nursery
An additional 450,000 shrubs and 4,000 trees to be delivered in the months leading up to the expo
Ghaf, date palm, acacia arabica, acacia tortilis, vitex or sage, techoma and the salvadora are just some heat tolerant native plants in the nursery
Approximately 340 species of shrubs and trees selected for diverse landscape
The nursery team works exclusively with organic fertilisers and pesticides
All shrubs and trees supplied by Dubai Municipality
Most sourced from farms, nurseries across the country
Plants and trees are re-potted when they arrive at nursery to give them room to grow
Some mature trees are in open areas or planted within the expo site
Green waste is recycled as compost
Treated sewage effluent supplied by Dubai Municipality is used to meet the majority of the nursery’s irrigation needs
Construction workforce peaked at 40,000 workers
About 65,000 people have signed up to volunteer
Main themes of expo is ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and three subthemes of opportunity, mobility and sustainability.
Expo 2020 Dubai to open in October 2020 and run for six months
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
MATCH INFO
Iceland 0 England 1 (Sterling pen 90 1)
Man of the match Kari Arnason (Iceland)
Brief scores:
Day 1
Toss: South Africa, field first
Pakistan (1st innings) 177: Sarfraz 56, Masood 44; Olivier 4-48
South Africa (1st innings) 123-2: Markram 78; Masood 1-4
Specs%3A%202024%20McLaren%20Artura%20Spider
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Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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%3Cp%3EAuthor%3A%20S%20Frederick%20Starr%3Cbr%3EPublisher%3A%20Oxford%20University%20Press%3Cbr%3EPages%3A%20290%3Cbr%3EAvailable%3A%20January%2024%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
PROFILE OF HALAN
Started: November 2017
Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport and logistics
Size: 150 employees
Investment: approximately $8 million
Investors include: Singapore’s Battery Road Digital Holdings, Egypt’s Algebra Ventures, Uber co-founder and former CTO Oscar Salazar
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.