Late goal keeps Spurs in competition

BARCELONA: Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino believes the biggest reward for completing ‘‘mission impossible’’ is the prospect of playing Champions League football in the team’s new stadium.

Spurs booked their unlikely place in the knockout stage with a 11 draw at Barcelona, thanks to Lucas Moura’s late goal at the Nou Camp against the group B winner yesterday.

Tottenham was headed out of the competition as it trailed to Ousmane Demebele’s superb opener and Inter Milan, whose result Spurs had to match, was level with PSV Eindhoven, until its late rescue act in Spain.

Pochettino’s side looked dead and buried halfway through the group stage but it took seven points from its final three games and should be able to host matches when the competition resumes in the new year.

‘‘I am so happy, so proud. I think people said it was mission impossible but we are here and we are in the next stage,’’ Pochettino said.

Mohamed Salah fired Liverpool into the last 16 of the Champions League yesterday but coach Juergen Klopp was just as thankful for his ‘‘lifesaver’’ of a goalkeeper after the 10 win over Napoli.

The slender victory was

Aenough for Liverpool to progress at the expense of Napoli, which crashed out on goals scored after the clubs finished tied on nine points.

Klopp and a nervous Anfield crowd watched Liverpool hang on at the death, and relief was palpable as Brazilian Alisson rushed from his line to deny Arkadiusz Milik in almost the last act of the match.

‘‘The save Ali made — I have no words for that. That was a lifesaver tonight,’’ Klopp said.

‘‘The goal Mo scored, what a goal, unbelievable.’’

Salah’s 44 goals in all competitions in his first campaign at Anfield made his seven goals in Liverpool’s first 15 league matches this season, plus two in five Champions League starts, looked meagre by comparison.

But in the space of a week he has carried out a hattrick at Bournemouth to help steer Liverpool to the top of the Premier League, and his solo strike yesterday. — Reuters

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES Excuse me . . . Carles Alena, of FC Barcelona (front) tangles with Erik Lamela, of Tottenham Hotspur, during their drawn Uefa Champions League group B match at Camp Nou yesterday.