Late, late horror show stuns Conte
Former academy kid Edwards stars as Spurs collapse
ANTONIO CONTE would have glanced at his watch in the final minute and thought, ‘I’ll take that’. At the time, it was goalless and Tottenham were leaving Lisbon with a valuable point.
Three minutes later, referee Srdjan Jovanovic blew for full time with Tottenham on their knees after a 2-0 loss. How did that happen?
even by Tottenham’s standards, this was an implosion of epic proportions as Sporting, courtesy of two substitutes, scored twice in the dying moments to snatch victory.
First, in the 90th minute, Paulinho glanced home a brilliant header from Pedro Goncalves’s corner. Then, in the third minute of added time, Arthur Gomes scored a wondrous solo effort seconds after coming on.
Conte swigged from a bottle of water, utterly shell-shocked. Who could blame him? Barring the late capitulation, this had been a textbook Champions League away performance.
Tottenham navigated their way through the clash relatively comfortably. Yes, there were a few bumps and scrapes along the way but, for the most part, they were in control.
Indeed, when Spurs boss Conte reflects on this brutal night, he will conclude that it should never have ended like this.
Tottenham had plenty of opportunities to have the match sewn up way before Sporting’s late, late show. But — as Conte put it — they were made to pay for their profligacy.
That is not to discredit Sporting’s contribution. They were organised and well- drilled, more than holding their own against Premier League opponents.
Indeed, in Marcus edwards, the Tottenham academy product now thriving in Portugal, Sporting had the stand-out attacking player on the pitch.
Beautiful control, super balance and a big threat. One run at the end of the first half that saw him bamboozle eric Dier twice and Ben Davies was poetry in motion. No wonder Mauricio Pochettino likened him to Lionel Messi.
equally, you can see why his current manager Ruben Amorim believes he can break into the senior england set-up. At 23, the forward has his peak years ahead of him. On this showing, you would imagine he will not be in the Portuguese league for long.
Surely it will not be long before Gareth Southgate makes a trip to Lisbon to watch him.
edwards’ attacking instincts are being harnessed by Amorim, who himself is attracting admiring glances from elsewhere.
It came as a surprise to many that the 37-year- old coach was linked as a potential successor to Thomas Tuchel at Chelsea last week — but not after his side’s performance last night.
It was edwards who caught the eye on the pitch. Sporting’s first opportunity was a product of edwards’ weighted pass into Francisco Trincao’s path, resulting in the latter seeing his low shot saved by Hugo Lloris.
But from that moment on, edwards’ magical spell aside, Spurs were cool and collected.
Richarlison squandered a decent headed opportunity, before emerson Royal found himself deep inside Sporting’s box only to fluff his lines at the vital moment.
Tottenham had the ball in the net in the 42nd minute but Richarlison was well offside. Royal and Harry Kane were both denied by Antonio Adan at the start of the second half as Spurs searched for the goal their play probably deserved.
At this point, every Sporting
tackle or interception was cheered vociferously by the home support as if their team had scored.
Conte replaced Son Heung-min with Dejan Kulusevski in the 72nd minute in search of the winning goal.
The Tottenham manager warned Son on Monday night that his place in the team is no longer guaranteed. After this — his eighth game without a goal — he will be feeling the heat.
Kulusevski almost made an immediate impact, his cross
headed narrowly wide by Richarlison in the 75th minute.
It looked for all the world that Tottenham would leave Portugal with a point, though Lloris did produce an excellent save to deny Pedro Porro in the closing stages.
But then it all turned a bit, well, ‘Spursy’ — as substitutes Paulinho and Arthur sent the home fans into dreamland.
SPORTING LISBON (3-4-3): Adan 7.5; Ignacio 7, Coates 7, Reis 7; Porro 7.5, Morita 7 (Alexandropoulos 71min, 6), Ugarte 7, Santos 7 (Esgaio 90); Trincao 6.5 (Paulinho 76),