Dele sparks home fires at last
TOTTENHAM 3 CSKA MOSCOW 1
SPURS’ England stars finally claimed Wembley as a second home as the club ended its national stadium jinx with an emphatic victory over CSKA Moscow.
Dele Alli and Harry Kane gave Tottenham the advantage before the former’s header was bundled over the line in a bizarre Igor Akinfeev own-goal to end a run of six successive defeats under the giant arch going back to their League Cup win against Chelsea in 2008.
The victory further secured the promise of a return here early in 2017 for the Europa League after manager Mauricio Pochettino made it clear there would be no hiding from the Wembley hoodoo.
From the moment the defeat in Monaco that ended Spurs’ Champions League hopes sparked a call for a return to White Hart Lane for European games, Pochettino had laid down the law.
The rest of the campaign was to be a final chance to acclimatise better to Wembley before the club play there, in all probability, next season in the Premier League and he made it clear he expected that process to last as long as possible.
As a result, a decider for a Europa League place that some managers might have been tempted to lose saw the Argentine field his strongest possible team.
And for half an hour, Wembley did look a lot more comfortable – although that may have been an illusion caused by all the empty seats vacated by Spurs fans who clearly do not share Pochettino’s enthusiasm for the stadium.
Tottenham started brightly, with Alli arguably looking most comfortable of all – as the only thing he failed to do in the opening exchanges was hit the back of the net. He did find the top of it, mind, with a supposed pass back to the CSKA goalkeeper after a break for treatment that earned him a rebuke from Zoran Tosic.
Pochettino famously described him as having a certain “devilment” about him; Spurs fans were mainly wondering how the devil he had not scored from a seventh- minute header just wide or a simple chance in the middle of the goal which he hit straight at the goalkeeper midway through the half.
CSKA soon showed them just how easy the goalscoring process can be with a long punt upfield, simple nod down by Tosic and straightforward finish for Alan Dzagoev.
Thankfully, Alli got the message. There was a clear offside in the build-up to the Tottenham equaliser, but this time the moment Christian Eriksen’s cross reached the England international there seemed to be no doubt where it was going and finally the CSKA net bulged.
It was a moment that relaxed the whole team and even before the kettle had boiled for a halftime cuppa, Tottenham were feeling even more at home.
This time the offside trap was legitimately broken by Danny Rose, whose low cross from the left was turned in by Kane to give Tottenham the lead with virtually the last kick of the half. Tottenham pushed
Son Heung-Min further forward in the second half and he nearly took instant advantage when another Rose cross evaded the Korean’s outstretched foot by inches from the very start.
With a draw enough to secure them the Holy Grail – or is that poisoned chalice – of Europa League football, Tottenham could be forgiven, though, for largely going through the motions, completely dominant in possession and seldom threatened by any thought of a CSKA counter. An Eriksen free-kick came close to adding another, only for the ball to be beaten away by Akinfeev.
The CSKA goalkeeper had suffered the ignominy of failing to keep a clean sheet in the Champions League for the 39th time in a row but was clearly in no mood to let standards slip as a result, denying Kane.
Then disaster! Somehow, having clawed out Alli’s closerange header, the ball hit Akinfeev’s foot and bounced back agonisingly past him for the overdue third. The Spurs player could barely bring himself to celebrate. While goals at Wembley usually spark, laps of honour, medals and open-topped bus tours, the overwhelming feeling for Spurs was one of pure relief.
TOTTENHAM (4-2-3-1): Lloris; Walker, Dier, Vertonghen, Rose; Winks, Wanyama; Eriksen, Alli, Son (N’Koudou 61); Kane. Goals: Alli 38, Kane 45, Akinfeev og 78.
CSKA (4-2-3-1): Akinfeev; Nababkin, A Berezutskiy, V Berezutskiy, Schennikov; Natcho, Golovin (Chalov 45); Tosic (Gordyushenko 71), Milanov, Dzagoev; Traore (Strandberg 81). Booked: Schennikov, V Berezutskiy. Goal: Dzagoev 33.
Referee: Nicola Rizzoli (Italy).