Manchester City needed extra time to advance to the Capital One Cup quarterfinals, while Tottenham had to go all the way to the penalty shootout before they were able to book their own place.
After goals aplenty in Tuesday night's action of the League Cup, the two matches scheduled for Wednesday saw, maybe not as many goals, but plenty of drama.
Newcastle were left to rue some of the chances they missed as City, with goals from Alvaro Negredo and Edin Dzeko in extra time, walked away with the honours at St. James' Park.
The Magpies had the better of the opportunities in the 90 minutes, with Yoan Gouffran, Papiss Cisse and Shola Ameobi all missing decent chances. City, smarting from that defeat to Chelsea at the weekend, were far from their best, and had Costel Pantilimon to thank for a string of saves - the goalkeeper more than justifying his inclusion in place of Joe Hart, with Manuel Pellegrini making ten changes to the side that lost at Stamford Bridge in the English Premier League.
Once the game went into the inevitable extra time as the match remained goalless, City's superior quality showed when substitute Negredo got on the end of a cross from Dzeko to slot his side into the front in the 99th minute.
Six minutes later, Newcastle found themselves two goals down when Dzeko latched onto a pass from James Milner before rounding the keeper to make it 2-0.
Newcastle did their best to find two goals in the final 15 minutes, but luck just wasn't on Alan Pardew's side as City sealed their place in the last-eight.
At White Hart Lane, just three days after Tottenham got the better of Hull 1-0 in the Premier League, Andre Villas-Boas' men were the side smiling at the final whistle yet again.
The match ended 2-2 after 90 minutes, with a Brad Friedel own goal cancelling out Gylfi Sigurdsson's opener. The Spurs midfielder fired home a tremendous half-volley on 16 minutes to make it 1-0 to Tottenham, only for a clumsy error from Friedel, eight minutes into halftime, to allow Hull back into the game.
Neither side could settle the issue in normal time, with Hull then gaining the upperhand through Paul McShane in the 99th minute. However, substitute Harry Kane restored parity for Tottenham in the 108th minute, before Friedel made up for his error by saving Ahmed Elmohamady's penalty in the shootout to send Spurs through.
Hull manager Bruce had plenty of issues with the referee in the Premier League game, after a soft penalty won Tottenham three points on Sunday. And Wednesday's Capital One Cup fourth round encounter was no different with a possible red card on Kyle Walker and a penalty decision not going Hull's way, as Spurs somehow managed to fight their way into the quarterfinals.
Quarterfinal fixtures: Leicester vs Manchester City; Stoke vs Manchester United; Sunderland/Southampton vs Chelsea; Tottenham vs West Ham.
