Gareth Bale's 88th-minute wondergoal gave Tottenham Hotspur a 1-0 win over a dogged Sunderland at White Hart Lane in the Premier League this afternoon.
The win was not enough to take Spurs to the Champions League next season, however, as Arsenal beat Newcastle United 1-0 to qualify at their expense.
The first half was all one-way traffic as Paolo Di Canio's side struggled to get out of their own half, with Spurs dominating without creating anything clear cut.
The hosts started the brighter of the two sides and were playing some neat stuff, without ever really threatening the Black Cats' defence.
Emmanuel Adebayor was sent scampering away down the left but his drifted cross was a touch too high for Bale to connect just after 17 minutes.
Three minutes later Bale was given his sixth yellow card for simulation this season, after dancing away from Sebastian Larsson and taking a tumble in the box under a challenge from the Swede.
Tom Huddlestone had Spurs' first shot on target with an effort from the edge of the box, which was comfortably held by Simon Mingolet.
Despite the home side's dominance, it was the visitors who carved out the best chance of the half on the half-hour mark when Danny Graham laid in Conor Wickham, who shot straight at Hugo Lloris from six yards out.
Danny Graham went close four minutes after the restart, when he fired low to Lloris's left-hand side, but the Frenchman was down quick to parry the shot away.
Less than a minute later, Spurs had a penalty claim waved away when Adebayor's shot stuck Carlos Cuellar on the arm as the defender went down trying to block the effort.
Huddlestone had another good chance on 54 minutes when Mingolet made a hash of a clearance from a free kick, but his sliced shot went high above the bar.
Andre Villas-Boas's side were denied twice in a just a few seconds by Jack
Colback after Scot Parker's effort was blocked on the line before Colback made another vital interception onto the post in the same sequence.
Moments later Clint Dempsey's low drive was blocked by his own teammate when Jan Vertonghen could not move out the way in time.
Another Spurs chance went begging when Bale tied Colback up in knots before
Mingolet rushed out to thwart the Welshman's low drive after 72 minutes.
Sunderland were forced to play the last 15 minutes with 10 men as David Vaughan was given a second yellow for a clumsy tackle on Aaron Lennon.
With the game seemingly petering out for a draw, Bale jinked inside from the right before unleashing a rocket from 25 yards beyond Mingolet with just two minutes of normal time left.
Paul Gorst
