| Match report
I'm am getting as fed up as I
imagine you are about hearing about Tottenham conceding late goals
in Europe despite dominating the game, but it was a case of
self-destruct here, with Hugo Lloris' sending off a pre-cursor to a
late PSV equaliser to make the score 2-2. The game had seen
Tottenham have over 70% possession and 22 shots at goal, but had
little to show form it, with a win being vital in this match to give
us a chance of progressing out of the group.
The game had started well for Spurs, as in the fourth minute,
Eriksen was taken down from behind and the ref played on, as the
ball was played out to Trippier, whose first-time cross low to the
near post was aimed at Son, but a defender got there first.
Harry Kane came close to opening the scoring when his header from a
Trippier corner struck the angle of bar and post, but on 29 minutes,
PSV went ahead thanks to a piece of indecision by Alderweireld and
then a piece of good fortune. Toby dwelt on the ball long enough for
Lozano to take it away from him and although the Belgian got back,
the PSV man’s shot took a flick off his intended block and looped
agonisingly slowly over Hugo and into the net. It was a sloppy way
to concede possession and give the home side a goal start.
It looked as though Spurs
had pulled level on 34 minutes, but an offside flag ruled it out
after a corner had seen the keeper save an Alderweireld header at
goal and then Sanchez swept the ball home to the keeper’s left,
while he was ahead of Kane, who was on the other side of the goal.
How he was interfering with play I fail to see. He couldn’t have
been active, as the ball was nowhere near him. But give it the
referee did.
Spurs did equalise in the 39th minute, with another deflection !
Eriksen played a ball between defenders out to Trippier on the right
and he did well to get there, pulling the ball back to Lucas around
twelve yards out. He took the shot early and the ball flicked off
Viergever to take the ball above the keeper’s low dive. It was
Christian's vision that opened up the defence and Kieran did well to
pick out Lucas.
PSV made it 1-1 on woodwork
hits too when Pereiro hit a shot that looked like it took a
deflection and skimmed the bar on the way over, but the referee and
officials didn’t give a corner. That wasn’t a surprise seeing as
what a shocker of a game they were having.
Seven minutes after half-time Eriksen let Trippier’s pass run across
him and struck a left foot but it was straight down the middle and
at a good height for the keeper to beat it out. It only delayed
Spurs hitting the net, with Son and Eriksen’s tight passing opened
up space on the left and the Dane picked out Harry Lane’s head with
a delightful cross that elided a defender and all Harry was left to
do was to nod it down past the keeper, who was rooted to his line.
It was a goal that had been coming, as Spur were passing the ball
about comfortably and PSV’s pressing dropped off a bit. The
keeper did better on 65 minutes, when Kane got another header on
target from Trippier’s free-kick, but Zoet got a knee to the ball
and kept it out on the line. It was a really good opportunity, that
should have been taken. Erik Lamela came on for Lucas and when he
was played in on the right and his footwork baffled the defender in
front of him to crash a right foot shot against the bar.
Spurs shot themselves in the
foot when Eriksen played a blind pass and PSV broke with a pass
through the middle that brought Hugo racing from goal and outside of
his box, Lozano touched the ball wide and was clattered by the
Frenchman. The ref produced the red card, even though there were
players covering. With ten minutes to go, it was the last thing
Spurs needed and Vorm entered play in Son’s place and was made to
produce a decent dive to his left to stop the free-kick going in at
the bottom of the post.
An innocuous free-kick was won from a nothing challenge by the weak
ex-Gooner Malen, making Trippier’s contact look much worse than it
was and in the 86th minute, it was played into the box. It
came into the box, Sanchez headed it out, but when it was played
back in, it was nudged home by de Jong, who was eight yards out.
Coming on top of the sending off, it was another late blow in this
competition, when all we had to do was to see the game out.
When a long ball from the
right dropped over a defender’s head, it fell to Kane, but his first
touch killed the ball, although his second was blocked and the
chance was gone.
Spurs had tried to get a late winner, but with numbers lacking
thanks to Hugo's dismissal, PSV dealt with the attacks, but the side
do not seem to have learned the lesson from the Barcelona match.
Handing goals to the opposition, even the fourth ranked in the
group, makes our task a whole lot more difficult, especially when we
don't take chances of our own. The number of efforts in this
game - twice as many as PSV and three times as many on target, but
ending up with only a point, which means we are still not bottom in
the group, but a win would have made catching the top two possible,
but with Barcelona beating Inter, we now have to win all three
remaining games and hope Inter lost to Barca again and then drop a
point to PSV.
This game shows that we are
still a long way off the top sides and even last year's unbeaten
group campaign was still ended once we met a top class team.
We are still relative new-comers to the Champions League, but at
this level, you have to take on board the experiences you go through
and make them positives in your game. We are still without
Jan, Danny and Dele, but other sides can bring in equivalent players
to replace them.
There is still a little
hope, but it got smaller after this draw and Pochettino's body
language during the match showed he was not best pleased. With
PSV making the return game next at Wembley, nothing less than a win
will keep us with an interest in the Champions League.
Matthew McKay |
