UEFA Champions League Qualification Playoffs: Match Review - Tottenham Hotspur vs. Young Boys
Tottenham Hotspur, who finished as the fourth placed team in last season’s English Premier League, took on Young Boys from the Swiss Football League in a crucial European Champions League qualification playoff on 17th of August, 2010.
Tottenham recently opened their Premier League season with a well earned draw against Manchester City at the White Hart Lane last Saturday, the 14th of August, 2010. Tottenham approached the match with a conventional four at the back with four in midfield and two upfront, while Young Boys adopted a much maligned formation with four at the back and five in the midfield and only a single striker upfront.
Young Boys finished second in the Swiss Football League at the end of the 2009-2010 season and thus earned a berth in the qualification playoffs of Europe’s most prized club cup competition. The first leg of the two legged play-off match took place in Switzerland in order to give the Swiss club home advantage. Conversely, the second leg is scheduled to be held at the White Hart Lane in England, which is Tottenham Hotspur’s home stadium.
Tottenham’s starting eleven included their star striker Jermaine Defoe upfront with the traditional big centre-forward in the shape of Roman Pavlyuchenko. In Hotspur’s midfield, Palacios took up the defensive responsibilities while Gareth Bale took his usual position on the left wing. Modric accompanied Palacios in central midfield and the Croatian playmaker was deployed by Harry Redknapp as an attacking midfielder who had limited back-tracking errands. On Tottenham’s right wing, Giovanni Dos Santos got the nod ahead of Lennon and Bentley; the Mexican youngster retained his place from Tottenham’s starting eleven for the previous weekend’s match in the English Premier League.
As far as Young Boys were concerned, the Swiss football club played Bienvenu as the sole striker while Degen, Costanzo, Lulic, Doubai and Hochstrasser played in midfield. At the back, Sutter, Jemal, Spycher and Affolter were given the task of keeping Defoe and Roman quiet throughout the night.
Young Boys shocked the English giants right at the start of the game, as they took the lead through Lulic at the 4th minute mark in the first half of the match. Lulic pounced on a loose ball after confusion in Tottenham’s penalty area. Right from the start, Tottenham’s 4-4-2 looked hopeless against Young Boys’ 4-5-1, as the Swiss side dominated the possession early on. The Spurs seemed frustrated at times and downright clumsy as well on other times, as Boys controlled the ball really well and hardly gave it away through careless long balls or ambitious passes.
Tottenham’s first man to go into the referee’s booking card was their left back Assou-Ekotto. The Cameroonian fouled Degen from behind in the fifth minute of the match and rightly saw a yellow card for his mistimed tackle. Young Boys capitalized on their early domination in the first half again in the 13th minute of the match, as Bienvenu scored to take the score-line to two goals to nil in favour of Boys.
Boys then struck again around the halfway mark of the first half, as in the 28th minute of the first half, Hochstrasser ran onto Costanzo’s through ball to make it three nil for the Swiss club football’s representatives. Harry Redknapp brought about his first change of the match in the 36th minute as Huddlestone came on for Ekotto at left back. As a consequence of this substitution, Gareth Bale was switched to a left back role while Modric took up Bale’s spot on the left wing and Huddlestone played in central midfield alongside Palacios.
Just before the half ended, Tottenham gave themselves a lifeline as Bassong scored for them from a corner kick after some slack marking by Young Boys’ defence. After the halfway mark, Harry introduced Kranjcar in place of Modric on Tottenham’s left wing. This move worked out brilliantly for the Spurs as they scored through Roman Pavlyuchenko in the 83rd minute to give themselves two away goals to take back to the second leg at the White Hart Lane. The match eventually ended with the score line at Tottenham 2-3 Young Boys.
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