Not even Messi can stop Spurs
NO ONE gave them a prayer. Not in football’s most daunting stadium.
But Tottenham produced a brilliant battling display worthy of the miracle which put them into the Champions League knockout stages.
Spurs supersub Lucas Moura struck an 85th-minute equaliser which was no more than Mauricio Pochettino’s men deserved.
And with Inter Milan held to a draw by PSV Eindhoven, it was enough to put Spurs into the last 16 when bigger teams would have surrendered.
It was a huge result which was testament to Tottenham’s courage and resilience to leave the 5,000-strong army of away fans stuck up in the heavens celebrating wildly at the final whistle.
They could barely believe it and nor could the Tottenham players who hugged each other and danced in the centre circle as news of Inter slipping up filtered through.
Even Lionel Messi, on as a sub, could not stop Spurs.
What had looked like mission impossible had become a little more believable when Barcelona named their starting line-up.
With qualification in the bag, Barcelona rested Messi, Sergio Busquets, Gerard Pique and Jordi Alba, though they were all substitutes to make up the most star-studded bench in football history.
Barcelona gave Champions League debuts to teenage left-back Juan Miranda and Carles Alena, 20, in midfield and the travelling fans must have thought they were in with a chance.
That hope eroded after just seven minutes when Spurs’ own rookie, 21-year-old Kyle Walker-Peters, made a terrible mistake to let in Ousmane Dembele for a brilliant goal.
Pochettino, without injured duo Kieran Trippier and Serge Aurier, had given Walker-Peters a remarkable vote of confidence beforehand but his faith in his young right-back came back to haunt him. Walker-Peters was caught in possession in the centre circle and Dembele scorched forward in a lightning counter-attack.
The French forward turned Harry Winks inside out as well before slotting past keeper Hugo Lloris.
It was a disastrous start for Spurs but some redemption for bad boy Dembele, who has gained the unwanted tag as the most fined player in Barcelona’s history for breaking club rules on timekeeping on a string of occasions.
Walker-Peters looked shellshocked and his night did not get much better when he was booked for a foul on Miranda as Tottenham’s night threatened
to go from bad to worse. But from nowhere Spurs found the courage to come back at their tormentors. They began to stretch them, Danny Rose finding space on the left and Heung-Min Son causing problems with his pace.
Rose drilled in a low cross which whistled just beyond Son and then the South Korean went clean through after brushing aside Barcelona defender Thomas Vermaelen only to be denied by stand-in goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen.
Tottenham simply refused to be overwhelmed by the occasion as they kept pushing forward in search of an equaliser with the balance of power in Group B on a knife edge.
Christian Eriksen’s 48thminute curtler forced a brilliant save out of Cillessen. Son was denied again by the goalkeeper and Tottenham’s growing confidence was the reason why Barcelona decided to bring on Messi in the 63rd minute.
Messi hit the post and then Lucas was denied by Cillessen.
But Tottenham have left it late this season and they did it again when Harry Kane cut in from the left, drilled a low cross and Lucas pounced.
TOTTENHAM (4-1-2-1-2): Lloris; WalkerPeters (Lamela 61), Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Rose; Winks (Llorente 83); Eriksen, Sissoko; Alli; Son (Lucas 71), Kane. Booked: WalkerPeters. Goal: Lucas 85. BARCELONA (4-3-3): Cillessen; Semedo, Lenglet, Vermaelen, Miranda; Rakitic (Busquets 46), Alena, Arthur; Dembele (D Suarez 76), Coutinho, Munir (Messi 63). Booked: Semedo. Goal: Dembele 7.
Referee: M Mazic (Serbia).