THAT’S MOURA LIKE IT AS SPURS HERO STUNS BARCA
BRAZILIAN NETS LATE ON TO PUT SPURS THROUGH
Barcelona 1 Tottenham 1
LUCAS MOURA was Spurs’ goal hero as they battled back from the brink on a nerveshredding night at the Nou Camp.
Tottenham’s hopes looked grim as they
NO ONE gave them a prayer. Not a hope. Not in football’s most daunting stadium.
But Spurs somehow produced a brilliant battling display which took them into the Champions League knock-out stages.
Tottenham super-sub Lucas Moura struck an 85th-minute equaliser, which was no more than Mauricio Pochettino’s men deserved in a stadium which has seen so many English dreams disappear.
But with Inter Milan held to a draw by PSV Eindhoven, it was enough to put Spurs into the last 16.
The result was testament to Tottenham’s courage to leave their 5,000-strong army of fans stuck up in the heavens celebrating wildly at the final whistle.
They could barely believe it and nor could the players who hugged each other and danced in the centre circle as news of Inter slipping up filtered through.
It was of course against a muchchanged Barca, but no-one should deride Tottenham’s achievement because the La Liga giants are now unbeaten in 29 Champions League games, equalling Bayern Munich’s all-time record.
This was a night to cherish and even Lionel Messi – on for a late cameo role – could not break Tottenham hearts.
What had appeared mission impossible looked a little more achievable when Barcelona boss Ernesto Valverde named his starting XI.
With qualification in the bag, he rested Messi, Sergio Busquets, Gerard Pique and Jordi Alba, although they were all on the most star-studded bench in history.
Barca gave Champions League debuts to teenage left-back Juan Miranda and 20-year-old Carles Alena in midfield and the travelling fans must have thought they were in with a chance.
But that hope eroded after just seven minutes when Tottenham’s own rookie, 21-year-old right-back Kyle Walker-Peters, made a terrible error to let in Ousmane Dembele for a brilliant opening goal.
Pochettino, without injured Kieran Trippier and Serge Aurier, had given Walker-Peters a vote of confidence in his pre-match press conference, but his faith in youth returned to haunt him this time.
Walker-Peters was caught in possession in the centre circle and Dembele (above) scorched forward in a lightning counter-attack, his pace blew Spurs away and the France forward smashed a low shot past Hugo Lloris. Walker-Peters (left) looked shell-shocked and his night did not improve when he was booked for a foul as Tottenham’s night threatened to go from bad to worse.
But from nowhere, Tottenham showed real courage. They began to stretch the home defence, 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 then the Korea forward went clean through after brushing aside Thomas Vermaelen only to be denied by stand-in keeper Jasper Cillessen.
Spurs refused to be overwhelmed by the occasion as they kept pushing forward with Group B on a knife edge. Christian Eriksen’s curling 48th-minute shot forced a brilliant save from Cillessen.
Son was also denied by the Dutchman and maybe Tottenham’s growing confidence was the reason Barcelona decided to bring on Messi in the 63rd minute. The little Argentinian hit the post and then Lucas was denied by Cillessen.
But Spurs have left it late this season and they did it again when Kane cut in from the left, drilled a low cross and Moura fired home.