European Champions League Qualifiers roundup
Just imagine that you have to wait for 50 years to play the European cup, and when you finally get to play, you blow your chance. That’s exactly what Tottenham Hotspurs did last night in Switzerland, as they almost crashed out of the Champions League within 28 minutes of the first leg of a two legged tie. Tottenham’s chances of qualification to the group stages of the Champions League still hand in balance, as they somewhat staged a comeback and scored two late goals. They are only trailing by one goal and have the advantage of two away goals.
Senad Lulic scored for the home side as early as the 4th minute of the match, as he burst through the Spurs defence and side-footed the ball past Gomez with aplomb. Henri Bienvenu scored the second for the hosts only the 28th minute when Xavier Hochstrasser fired in a third. Roman Pavlyuchenko and Bassong scored late for the visitors, as they salvaged two precious away goals from a seemingly lost tie.
Spurs have not played in a European Competition since 1960 and they thought they could realize their dream now. The fans were elated when the Spurs were pitted against Swiss Minnows Young Boys. But the Swiss had aspirations of their own as Spurs failed miserably to deal with the artificially laid plastic pitch and gave away under the weight of pressure in testing circumstances.
Spurs were not even a shadow of the side that played free flowing fluid football in the 0-0 draw at the weekend with Manchester City.
Ever before the scorers were disturbed Spurs were given a caution when Lulic broke free in the 3rd minute of the game but his shot cannoned off the post.
Spurs failed to heed on the warning and paid the price when just a minute later they were trailing.
Xavier Hochstrasser’s shot bounced off Ammar Jemal and fell for Lulic who made no mistake with the finish.
Spurs did have a chance to level the score but Giovanni Dos Santos, who was playing in inspired form, had his shot superbly saved by the opposing goalie.
Redknapp went into the match with an attacking 4-4-2 formation and perhaps it was his complacency that he chose not to employ a defensive midfielder and paid the price heavily.
But the manger realized the mistake very soon and replaced Assou-Ekotto with Tom Huddlestone in the 36th minute and Luka Modric was replaced by Niko Kranjcar in the 46th minute and immediately Spurs looked a better side.
Spurs got their first goal in the 42nd minute when Gareth Bale’s corner was headed in by Bassaong and Pavlyuchencko struck late in the 83rd minute to give Spurs some hope of making it to the next round.
Over in Ukraine Dutch Giants Ajax Amsterdam were held to a 1-1 draw by Dynamo Kiev in the first leg of their qualifying match.
The four times European Champions took the lead through Jan Vertonghen in the 57th minute. Just a minute earlier the hosts were reduced to 10 men when Jan Vertonghen was fouled and Denys Garmash was given his marching orders for a second bookable offence.
Ajax took full advantage as Demy de Zeeuw's free-kick was pin pointed for Vertonghen to head home.
But the never say die attitude of the Ukrainians came to their good as they equalized very \ late in the game through Oleh Gusev to share the spoils.
In another match Zenit St Petersburg beat French side AJ Auxerre 1-0 while Rosenborg beat FC Copenhagen 2-1 and Slovakian side Zilina have put themselves in pole position, qualifying for the champions League for the first time in their history as they secured a shock 2-0 win against Sparta Prague.
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