| Match report
A highly irregular refereeing
display reduced Tottenham to nine men, although many people thought
it should have been eight, while ignoring calls for penalties all
over the place, but poor first half finishing condemned Spurs to an
injury defeat, as Bournemouth finally huffed and puffed their
defensive walls down to put the pressure on Tottenham to win their
last game of the season to get Champions League football.
Changes to both sides meant
a few adjustments to the style of play, but Spurs appeared to have
expected that Bournemouth would close them down quickly and
they realised that they would have to move the ball quickly. With a
competitive opening, Lucas Moura robbed the ball just inside his own
half and immediately drove a shot at goal from the halfway line and
the ball beat the keeper, who was way off his line, but missed by
less than a yard. That was after seven minutes and apart from the
wide free-kick struck by the fouled Fraser (which Dier got booked
for) and a header off target from Lucas (who was offside), the
opening 12 minutes wasn’t thrill-packed. But Dele took
Dier’s pass on the left corner of the box, dragged the ball back
losing his two markers and drilled a shot on target that debutant
keeper Travers pushed out for a corner.
Sissoko was put away down the right and his ball into Lucas took the
defence out and his early shot was rising, but down the middle and
the keeper reached up to push it over his bar. Tottenham were moving
the ball about more confidently now, as Bournemouth dropped deeper,
nursing a couple of knocks to Fraser and Cook. Spurs were
nearly caught out, when Eriksen was bundled off the ball and
Bournemouth got away with it, breaking up the left with King, who
was brought down by Toby Alderweireld. From the free-kick, Tottenham
nearly caught the home side out. Eriksen put a through ball to the
fringe of the box for Dele to run onto, but the keeper came out to
head clear.
Travers was again in action soon after and again denied Moura, when
Rose’s ball down the left saw the defence caught out, but the
Brazilian’s low shot was kept out by the keeper’s leg.
Again, Spurs got behind the back four of Bournemouth, this time on
the right, but Son ran the ball in from the dead ball line looking
for Danny Rose, but the ball was too short and was won by a red and
black shirt. It looked as though Son was trying to score a goal
similar to that against Manchester City at home in the Champions
League. The home support was noisy in the spring sunshine, but they
were quiet when Adam Smith remembered his Tottenham roots and passed
to Sissoko on the edge of the Spurs box. Two passes later, Son was
free running into the box on the left and then firing too high when
he only had the keeper to beat.
The keeper was having an inspired first half of his debut, pushing
over a Dele header from Rose’s cross with a good stop. When the ball
broke Bournemouth’s way, they got away through, who took the ball
when it got stuck under Dier’s feet, but Eric recovered to chase him
and tackle from behind, but take the ball. Bournemouth players
and the crowd howled for a second yellow card, with play virtually
stopping, but the referee had seen it and hadn’t whistled. Son got
away and put the ball across the goal from the right, but Dele
couldn’t sort out his feet. After a stoppage for Son to
receive treatment, Toby misjudged a long ball, allowing King through
on goal, but Hugo Lloris had read it well and blocked the prod at
goal for a corner, but the Dean Court crowd wanted a penalty as he
bumped into King after that. The keeper also did well when a cross
came in after the corner was cleared and it went through a lot of
players at the near post, leaving Hugo to take it on the floor
in the six-yard box. Again, there were calls for a penalty when King
ran the ball into the box and Dier went to clear, with Wilson
putting his foot in front of him and going down.
When a foul was given against Son for a foul on Fraser, he went to
pick the ball up and Lerma stamped on his foot. Sonny pushed the
Bournemouth midfielder, who threw himself to the floor and the
referee pulled out a red card. Son was pushed to the floor in the
incident by Smith, who had no action taken against him. It left
Spurs reduced to ten men with a couple of minutes to go until the
break and damaged hopes of getting anything out of the game, while
Bournemouth claimed Dier should have been sent off and that they
should have had a penalty too.
TV replays indicated that Dier hadn’t got the ball when he
challenged King and should have gone, but that might have changed
the game, with Son’s incident not happening. Whichever way you
looked at it, there were problems to be sorted at half-time, with
Pochettino having to restructure the team to continue the
performance of the first 25 minutes. I imagine that the referee will
have been made aware during the break that there had been incidents
that he had got wrong (according to TV coverage) and would be
looking to even them out even more.
Poch brought on Foyth and Wanyama for Toby Alderweireld and Eric
Dier, probably to protect Dier from a potential red card, as
Bournemouth players looked keen to ensure he got one, while Toby
might have been struggling against the pace of Wilson and King.
Losing Son limited the options up front, as now Lucas was the lone
striker, but that was the least of their worries because after two
minutes of the second half, they were down to nine men. Juan Foyth
overran the ball and with Wilson pulling at him, challenged Simpson
and brought him down. The referee got his red card out again. What I
thought at half-time came true.
Spurs were being given the ball by Bournemouth, but were failing to
hold the ball, presenting it straight back to the home team and
giving them the chance to keep the pressure on our goal. It took the
Cherries 10 minutes of the half to get a shot on target, with Lloris
getting down to his near post to get behind the effort. Every time
the ball went into the Spurs box, the Tottenham defenders had to be
circumspect in going for the ball, as Pawson was looking to give
anything that looked like a foul.
Around the hour, Spurs did exert some pressure on the Bournemouth
box after breaking away and then keeping hold of the ball for a few
minutes. However, when Lloris booted the ball upfield, there was no
white shirt within 30 yards of it. Whereas in the first half, Spurs
were finding space beyond the back four, it was now not possible,
with two spare players to shut down any available space. As
Bournemouth looked for a goal, Wilson had a shot deflected over the
top and then Smith struck one too high, before Wilson headed a
Fraser cross wide. Ibe tried a shot from 25 yards, coming in from
the left, nut Hugo fisted it away. Weirdly, Bournemouth switched
Smith and Clyne as full backs to the other sides of the pitch and
Tottenham had Trippier at left back and Danny Rose at right back at
one stage.
There was a blow-up between Lerma and Rose, in which Danny didn’t go
down when Lerma tried the same trick by stamping at him when
he picked the ball up. The referee, who was weak in his consistency,
only spoke to Lerma for his second offence, when the midfielder is
one of the most booked players in the league. Howe brought on
Mousset for Ibe and he smashed a shot well wide, but then got a
header on target from a right wing cross, but it was straight at
Lloris.
Having made two changes at half-time, Mauricio brought on Davies for
Sissoko (on a yellow card) with ten minutes left. Lucas brought a
moment of relief by running past a defender and then taking on Cook
in the box, with the veteran defender looking like he might have
fouled him. But, guess what, the referee wasn’t interested. He was
in giving a foul against Dele, when he had let Ake jumping at Lucas
in the air without going for the ball go without even a free-kick.
In the last minute, Rose
blocked a shot from close range by Mousset and then Davies blocked
Ake’s effort for a corner. From it a scramble ensued and Lloris
kicked the ball clear as three red and black shirts closed in just a
couple of yards from goal. It was all for nothing, as a minute into
injury time, Ake had a free run on a corner and headed past Lloris
from a few yards out. It was a blow when the team had held out for
so long, but it was going to be hard to get anything from a game
when everything has gone against you.
Wanyama got a yellow card when Smith when down with a scream and
then it blew up between Lerma and Dele, with Lerma getting booked
when he shouldn’t have been on the pitch. But, guess what,
Dele got booked too as the referee wanted to make sure he was even
handed about things. When Spurs had a goal-kick with time left on
the clock, Lucas got the long ball and won a corner. Dele was pulled
to the ground by Wilson with the referee conveniently looking the
other way and Lucas scissor kicked the loose ball over the bar.
The two sending offs didn’t just damage our hopes of securing fourth
place, but also have a knock- on effect for the second leg of the
Champions League semi-final on Wednesday. We looked tired enough in
the first leg but playing with nine men for half the game will have
taken its tool on the side, most of whom will play against Ajax. It
was not only the defence, but the midfielders, who worked tirelessly
to prevent Bournemouth getting through. While not suggesting that
the referee was unduly biased, it is hard to see why he had such a
one-eyed game, with all the major decisions going Bournemouth’s way,
even to the extent of not positioning himself in a sufficiently good
enough position to see exactly what was going on in the box from a
late corner. Even he must have wondered why when Lerma was pushed
over in the first half and he showed Son a red card, the Bournemouth
player was holding his leg ??
Despite all what went on, Tottenham should have wrapped up the game
in the first half. Their goalkeeper was given the man of the
match award, even though he had nothing to do in the second half, so
that indicates that we had enough attacking play to make him work
and really, we should have put away at least two of the chances we
had and then the rest would have been academical.
Put it behind us and those
two games now look like cup finals in themselves. Can Spurs go
one better and make that three ?
Stanford Rivers |
