Hojbjerg secures top spot as defiant Spurs win it the hard way

Tottenham are through, but the question remains: how good might they be if they ever decide to play both halves of a game of football.

atrocious in the first half, they rallied after half-time, equalised, hit the bar through Pierre-emile hojbjerg with nine minutes remaining, then scored a winning goal in the fifth and final minute of added time when hojbjerg, set through one on one by harry Kane, buried the ball in Pau Lopez’s net.

Yet should it really be this hard? eintracht Frankfurt’s win against Sporting Lisbon looked to have pegged tottenham in second place until the very last kick of Group D, which would have meant tougher tests in the round of 16. But this should have been a straightforward group to top.

there are four Champions League groups completed so far, won by 15, even 18 points. Frankfurt were taking this one with 10 until hojbjerg’s intervention. Yet when the second half began with tottenham staring at the europa League in the new year, a different team emerged — one with ambition and energy, attempting to do more than throwing a blanket over the game. Where had they been for 45 minutes, when marseille dominated, led and could have been clear were it not for the goalkeeping of hugo Lloris? Why do tottenham have to be backed against the wall before they start to play?

the Stade Velodrome is an intimidating arena even with one end closed but marseille are not a great team by Premier League standards. they last beat an english club when Chelsea visited on December 8, 2010 and last made it out of a Champions League group in 2011. this defeat leaves them bottom and out of europe entirely this season. Yet had substitute Sead Kolasinac scored his 87th-minute header at the far post, which would have meant marseille were not chasing the game late and piling everyone forward allowing Kane and hojbjerg to invade on the counter attack, tottenham could have been knocked out.

antonio Conte, sitting in the stand after his red card against Sporting Lisbon — assistant Cristian Stellini filled in for him, and was booked for dissent by Polish referee Szymon marciniak — could not even have complained had that happened. there would have been no great injustice in a marseille win

after tottenham’s supine first-half performance. If the plan was to silence the famously boisterous Velodrome crowd, tottenham could not have done less to instigate that if Conte had sat in the stand in a Paris Saint- Germain shirt, with neymar as his special guest.

tottenham were, frankly, useless in the first half. Docile, unimaginative, unthreatening — the best that could be said was that they were largely compact and organised in repelling marseille.

even that limited achievement was rendered redundant however, once marseille scored, which they did in the second of seven minutes of added time, during which the pressure and noise level from the

home side and its supporters reached fresh levels of intensity. And no wonder. Marseille were excellent in those opening 45 minutes, only kept at bay by a fine display by Lloris, playing his first match at this stadium since visiting with Lyon in 2012.

Marseille folk like Lyon about as much as they like PSG and not even Lloris’ status as French captain and a World Cup winner spared him their ire. His riposte was to frustrate Marseille on several occasions as they swarmed towards Tottenham’s goal, a display we now know turned the tie.

Even he could do nothing about Chancel Mbemba’s opener for Marseille, though, such was Tottenham’s woeful marking. Amine Harit took a short corner from the right, Jordan Veretout sent the ball across deep and Mbemba, once of Newcastle, jumped higher than anyone else to power his header past Lloris. Of course, by jumping highest that simply means he left the floor, which no Tottenham player did, just as no Tottenham player got within touching distance of the scorer. Rodrigo Bentancur was probably closest but his contribution was to put his hands behind his back to prevent a penalty. Maybe prevent the header next time.

So all of that negativity, all of that rigidity, was wasted. Kane had a shot tipped over in the seventh minute off stoppage time and that was the first time Marseille goalkeeper Lopez had been threatened all game. And, despite the outcome, that really wasn’t excusable. Yes, Marseille had to win or exit the competition, while Tottenham only needed a draw. But to so nakedly play for that, with forwards of the calibre of Kane and Son Heung- min is incredibly frustrating.

To make matters worse, given how much Tottenham rely on their forward partnership, they lost Son to injury after 29 minutes. A horrible collision with Mbemba put him out of the game and may even threaten his World Cup place if a blow to his cheekbone has resulted in a fracture.

Marseille were also in the wars, gambling on Eric Bailly’s return from a hamstring injury and losing that bet when he lasted just nine minutes. Defenders were not their busiest players at the time, however, and the first 45 minutes were all about Marseille getting on the front foot.

From the third minute when Harit clipped a fine chip into the box which Alexis Sanchez glanced just wide with a header, Marseille had purpose. In the 19th minute, a collaboration of Arsenal old boys — Nuno Tavares the provider,

Sanchez the target — ended with a shot which Lloris saved at his near post. Jonathan Clauss shot across the face of goal soon after, and when Ryan Sessegnon made a hash of a clearance after 33 minutes, Veretout’s shot produced the save of the night from Lloris.

Tottenham could only improve after half-time and, as has happened so often recently, once trailing, they did with a set-piece equalising goal that made a mockery of their dismal first-half performance. Ivan Perisic whipped a free-kick into the box and Clement Lenglet emerged strongest from a scrum of players to head the ball past Pau.

It was hardly deserved but, sitting in the stand next to performance director Gretar Steinsson, Conte will no doubt argue the end justifies the means. He may be right, but it is a hard competition to win only playing 50 per cent of the time.