Spurs keeper hands it to ’em
TOO many bum notes, not enough virtuoso performances.
Dele Alli said the Tottenham injury crisis was no time for violins but the players still needed to go out and make a concerted effort to play.
In the end, the faulty fingers of Hugo Lloris was the instrument of Tottenham’s downfall but mainly they were the orchestrators of their own demise.
Bereft of ideas, bumbling in defence and lacking in tempo, this was last year’s Champions League finalists in name only.
Unlike that last thrilling campaign, they never really dared and they certainly did not do.
Leipzig, on the other hand, simply carried on where they left off at White Hart Lane.
It took just 11 minutes to add to the advantage they earned for themselves in north London.
With the ball bouncing around outside the Spurs area, Erik Lamela was slow to shut down Marcel Sabitzer and bang – the deficit had instantly doubled.
Replays showed it flew inside the far post off the bottom of Lloris’ glove, not his fingertips.
And there was no question that the World Cup-winning captain should have made a better effort to prevent Sabitzer’s second goal 10 minutes later from crossing the line.
It was a powerful header from the superb Angelino’s cross but it crept inside his near post and all he could do was claw it back out from inside the goal and wait for the inevitable buzz on the referee’s wrist as the goalline technology kicked in.
Things would have been worse if Timo Werner had not been narrowly offside when he netted between those two opening goals.
Thankfully the six-yard line made it clear enough he had strayed even before it was confirmed by VAR.
As it was, only a late goal from substitute Emil Forsberg added to Tottenham’s woes. But for all the blame that can be from MATT DUNN
LEIPZIG win 4-0 on Agg
laid at the door of Lloris, the impetus was on Spurs doing something at the other end after losing the leg in London.
One long-range shot from Giovani Lo Celso, saved well by Peter Gulacsi, was as much as the they could muster in a damp squib of an opening 45 minutes.
Given their woeful list of injuries, Tottenham needed to dare if they were to do but it was all so half-hearted.
Jose Mourinho played two wing-backs who only went forward enough to expose the back three behind them.
As ever, it seemed, Lo Celso was Spurs’ best player and Alli did his best up front to feed on scraps that came his way.
But he is no “box shark”, as Mourinho likes to call them. None of the players were. Too many looked like nervous minnows as Leipzig’s stingrays glided between them with so much freedom.
The pep talk Mourinho gave them at half-time was unlikely to have been sweet, but it was short, and Spurs stood shivering in the cold for a good few minutes before Leipzig joined them for the second half.
Arguably, Spurs did slightly better and there was even an Alli half-chance from a Lucas Moura cut-back.
However, three minutes from time, yet more defensive mayhem enabled Forsberg to side-foot in a third goal of the night and rubber-stamp Leipzig’s serene progression to the next round.