| Match report
With six minutes to go,
everything looked good for Tottenham, but that six minutes turned
the game on its head, with Internazionale grabbing two late goals to
take the win and leaving Spurs suffering their third 1-2 reverse on
the trot. Having said that Spurs did not play badly. Not great in
the first half, but the second was the best they had functioned this
season until that home surge at the end.
Without Trippier and Alderweireld making the trip, Aurier and
Sanchez filled their places in the team, with Son, Lamela and
Eriksen playing behind Kane. The rest of the side was as played
against Liverpool.
Spurs looked reasonably sharp at the start, even though some of
their passing was a little loose, but much of that was due to the
high press Inter played. Davies and Son were getting caught on the
ball as they were closed down, with fee possibilities to lay the
ball off. It was either that or having to play long balls up to
Kane, who was muscled off it. Inter won a series of corners around
the ten-minute mark, with nothing coming from them, but Sanchez had
to make an acrobatic clearance as a long throw was headed on and it
was about to drop in front of goal for Perisic.
The first sight of goal Tottenham had was after 12 minutes, when
Lamela’s run was halted and a free-kick was hit on target and
Handanovic dodgily punched the ball away, when it looked safe enough
to catch. Another free-kick when Son got away and was stopped when
Skriniar turned his shoulder into the Korean’s face gave Eriksen the
opportunity to put a good ball in, but although Davies flicked it on
the keeper came and grabbed the ball in the air. In the 25th
minute, Sanchesz got his head to a left wing Inter cross and Vorm
was required to palm the ball out at full stretch as it was on the
way to Icardi. From it, Spurs played the ball out and Miranda went
through the back of Kane in midfield with no punishment. Free-kicks
looked Tottenham’s best way of getting on the score-sheet and on the
half hour, Eriksen played a long one in from out on the right just
inside the Inter half and Sanchez won it, but headed it too far
downwards, with the ball bouncing up easily for Handanovic to claim.
A ball into the left side of the
Spurs box saw Vertonghen go for the ball and miss his kick as
Nainggolan challenged, but no foul was given and luckily the Belgian
midfielder’s cross was low into the six yard box, where Sanchez
cleared it upfield. It came back when Brozovic won it, but he hit a
shot well wide across Vorm’s goal.
Son got away on the left wing and his pacy, low cross saw de Vrij
slice it, but it went across goal behind him, when it could have
gone anywhere. Aurier got a shot at the far post when the ball ran
loose, but he hit it into the ground and it lost all its power as it
flew into the middle of the penalty area. When Spurs regained
possession, Eriksen threaded a pass beyond de Vrij for Kane to be in
on Handanovic, to the left of centre. He took the ball easily around
the keeper but ran it a little too far and in trying to keep the
ball in, knocked it out for a goal kick. It was a gilt-edged chance
and one that would have been against the run of play, but would have
opened the game up, as it had been quite cagey until then.
Sanchez’s foul on Nainggolan not only got him a booking but conceded
a central free-kick 25 yards out. Politano could only hit the wall
though, with Kane heading it out for a corner. Vorm took the
ball well, catching it from the corner kick. Eriksen, Lamela and
Aurier worked a good move on the right for the Ivory Coast
international to put a low cross into the near post that the keeper
could only parry, being helped out by his defenders, who go it
clear. Then Perisic went into the book for a crude foul on Eriksen.
Half time came and went. With Spurs enjoying their best spell just
before the whistle and after the restart, Eriksen chipped a ball
towards Kane, but it drifted away from the striker when maybe the
Dane could have shot. Just before that Politano did shoot, but way
wide. Tottenham had made the ball work quicker and were forcing
Inter back.
Mousa Dembele started a forward move with the ball on halfway, Son
moved the ball infield from the left, Eriksen took it on, won it
against two blue and black shirts after a block had taken it into
the air and then he let go a shot from 20 yards. Handonovic only got
a hand to it and pushed it out in front of goal again, with Lamela
getting a touch that inadvertently sent it in Christian’s direction
and he hit the net, with the ball flicking off Miranda to beat the
keeper. There was a slice of luck, but it was a good goal from the
moving and passing that has been missing. The Spurs contingent
under the roof went barmy !!
Soon after Erik could have doubled the lead, when he ran across from
right to left and hit a curling shot that deflected off a defender
and went just wide. Inter tried to hit back and although a lot of
their crosses were over-hit, Politano did land one on Perisic’s head
and Vorm had to dive left to get his hands behind it, even though it
wasn’t too powerful.
Davies was played in on our left wing inside the Inter box, but his
low pull-back was blocked and Son hit a hopeful shot from outside
the box, but straight at the keeper. Inter were getting desperate
with claims for a booking with every tackle that Spurs made. But
their keeper kept them in it. Just after the hour, Aurier made a
storming run from the halfway line, playing in Lamela to his left
and the Argentine’s shot was only kept out by Handanovic’s leg. It
rebounded to Kane in front of goal, who could only get a touch to it
as it went behind him, although an offside Son tucked it away.
It was Son’s last action, as Lucas replaced him and Perisic left the
pitch with Candreva coming on for him. Vorm was almost caught
playing out of his box, but Icardi took him out after he released
the pass, but it was a little risky although Spurs were still
looking to go forward. Lucas won a ball in the air, when Skriniar
went over the top of him, and his run into the box caused enough
panic for the ball to rebound to Lamela, whose shot was blocked by
Handanovic at close range, coming out to him quickly.
Inter continued to cross too long or to try some skilful trick that
only ended up with the ball going off the pitch. With Spurs having
more time on the ball as Inter tired, they looked comfortable in
possession. At times, there were Inter subs warming up by running on
the pitch inside the side-line and the fourth official and one of
the assistants behind the goal were all on the pitch. I was
surprised there was so much space opening up !
Candreva threatened the Spurs goal when he tricked a yard out of
Davies in the box and hit a shot that was always rising over the
bar. When Spurs got the ball to Lucas on the left, he ghosted past a
couple of Inter players and pulled the ball across, but not to a
white shirt, although the clearance fell to Dier to shoot. It flew
wide, but Winks was in his way as he ran onto it. It proved to be a
turning point, as in Inter’s next attack, Asamoah crossed from the
left, with the ball swinging away from the edge of the box, but
Icardi was there to hit a 25 yard volley that curled away from
Vorm’s full stretch dive to equalise. The noise inside the stadium
was a massive crescendo and it seemed to knock
some of the stuffing out of Spurs, such is the fragility of their
confidence.
Maybe Pochettino was also affected, as he took off Kane, who had run
tirelessly all night, replacing him with Danny Rose. It was he who
cleared the ball upfield as Icardi failed to control in the box, as
four mkinutes added time was shown on the fourth official’s board.
Sanchez headed narrowly over his own goal as a dangerous cross came
in and from the corner, there was a game of pinball as the ball
bounced around in front of the Tottenham goal. It went out for
another corner and when it was played in, de Vrij headed it back
across goal from a deep position and Vecino rose above Harry Winks
to head it across Vorm and in for a 2-1 lead to Inter in added time.
It was s shattering blow after what had been a good second half
performance by Spurs, but they were undone again by a set-piece.
Would Kane’s height have helped out in that situation ? Maybe, but
that is academic, the fact that we threw away a win in the
final few minutes of the match hints that the side do not currently
have that mental strength that they have shown for the last few
seasons.
It was gutting and the Inter fans in front of us were giving it
large, but they were the beneficiaries of a cracking goal out of the
blue that was out of keeping with their whole performance. Tottenham
looked better than they have recently, but are still suffering with
an inability to put games to bed when they are ahead. Last season’s
defeat by Juventus at Wembley was against a street-wise team
and we need to learn from that. It is not just killing the game by
scoring more goals, but, if need be, by drawing cheap fouls to
disrupt the game and kill time. We need to ensure that the ball is
kept away form our goal. We need to keep the ball and keep the ball
moving to tire out the opposition.
At the moment, there is difficulty holding onto possession, but the
second half showed that we can do it, but it needs accurate passing
and movement to receive the ball.
In the end, we came away with nothing and that is very
disappointing, but we did play better and there were signs of the
Spurs of the last two seasons coming back. The next few games will
need to see the team be sharper and on it, because the opposition
will not be there to roll over. Brighton will be fresher and Watford
will want to make a point after being forced to travel to Milton
Keynes. The team might be bolstered by the return of Trippier
and Toby and maybe Dele too.
Whoever takes to the pitch will need to make sure we can maintain a
good tempo to take the game to Brighton and also to ensure that we
sort out the defence for set-pieces as the Gulls will look to make
the most of corners and free-kicks.
Marco van Hip |
