Angelo Ogbonna was the hero as West Ham United beat Spurs in the EFL Cup in 2017 – but Mauricio Pochettino’s side got their revenge at the London Stadium.
Almost a year to the day since Angelo Ogbonna scored a thumping winner in West Ham’s 3-2 EFL Cup win against Tottenham Hotspur, the London rivals went head to head once again for a place in the quarter finals.
And Ogbonna had victory in his sights once again. It was the Italian international who emerged as the hero of Wembley that night in October 2017, scoring a bullet header to seal a dramatic comeback win and leave Spurs shell-shocked.
Speaking to the club’s official website before their second fourth round clash in 12 months, the former Juventus defender had his heart set on repeating the trick.
“I believe I will win the ball every time it comes into the penalty area,” Ogbonna said.
“We want to win every competition we enter, but every game in every competition in England is hard. We have a chance to do something good and achieve what we want to achieve, so maybe it can happen in the Carabao Cup this season.”
But it’s fair to say Ogbonna didn’t exactly succeed in repeating those heroics. While he was the hero 12 months ago, the centre-back was one of many villains as West Ham were thumped 3-1 by Spurs at the London Stadium on Wednesday night.
Ogbonna looked shaky and error-prone all night and he certainly could have done better with two of Tottenham’s goals, hacking at a clearance before Heung Min Son scored one of his two and being brushed aside by Fernando Llorente for the visitors’ second.
In fact, his midweek horror show rather summed up how far Ogbonna has fallen since that night at Wembley.
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