Full-time: Monaco 1-1 Spurs
A fair result given how Monaco improved after Jardim’s substitutions. But Spurs could have been out of sight by then and will regret a couple of missed chances by Kane, in particular. Now go elsewhere on this site for more MBM pleasure. Bye.
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90+1 min: Spurs change: Eriksen off, Carroll gets three minutes to transform the game ...
90 min: Spurs building sandbags around their box.
88 min: Freekick to Spurs after Moutinho trips Kane. Promising position. Central and about 28 yards out. Eriksen’s shot is deflected behind for a corner.
86 min: Adama Traoré eschews the pass and instead tries to lamp one into the corner from 20 yards. He’s way off target.
84 min: Important header by Dier at the back as Monaco pile on the pressure. Spurs were coasting, suddenly they’re rocking.
83 min: Monaco are going for the win and almost grab it! Dirar is again instrumental. He runs through the middle and lets fly from 25 yards! Lloris make a mess of it ... and Rose dives in to poke it behind before Carrilo can pounce! Excellent defending. Brave, too, as he’s banjaxed his hand again and has to go off to get more treatment.
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GOAL! Monaco 1-1 Spurs (El Shaarawy 81)
The substitutions have made the difference. Dirar swung in a magnificent cross and El Shaarawy got to it before Trippier and powered a header into the net from close range!
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79 min: Kane romps forward on the counter. He has Alli to his right and Nie to his left. He slips it to Njie ... who is puled back for offside. Wrongly, it looked to me.
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78 min: Dirar’s first contribution is a dash into the box that Rose curtails, at the expense of a corner. “In response to your question about canned crowd noise, yes!” booms MAtthew Allen Turner. “It has happened. Maybe not in this type of football but in the more smashy-up-the-place kind. The Atlanta Falcons were penalized a 2016 draft pick for doing just that last year.” Cue genuine laughter.
75 min: Monaco sub: Carvalho off, Dirar on. That amounts to ‘going for it’, Dirar being a nimble winger, Carvalho not quite.
73 min: It’s not happening for Kane tonight. Trippier delivers a fine cross and the striker has a free header from 10 yards ... but nods a gentle one straight at Subasic.
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72 min: Save! Dier gets a powerful header to an Eriksen corner but Subasic reacted well! Toulalan tidied up.
70 min: Spurs sub: Chadli off, Townsend on. Let’s have a bit of this:
68 min: Another Monaco sub: Carrilo is on, and Lacina Traoré won’t be offside any more tonight.
66 min: There’s something about the atmosphere at Stade Louis II that makes me wonder whether any club has ever used canned chanting and cheering? You know, like the canned laughter you header in TV shows, but with more swearing.
64 min: Spurs change: Lamela off, Clinton Njie on. I’m surprised Kane is being left on; he’s had to toil hard on his own up front and looks like he could do with a break.
61 min: The ref writes Toulalan’s name in his book. Not making private arrangements, you understand, it’s just the done thing after waving a yellow card, which Toulalan deserved for chopping down Dier.
60 min: Monaco sub: Lemar off, El Shaarawy on.
59 min: Rose is back on, with his hand looking mummified.
58 min: Coentrao makes good ground down the left and then curls a sweet cross towards Lacina Traoré, who misses with a header from seven yards! And he was offside, to boot.
57 min: Lovely play by Moutinho, who skips past two ... before being dispossessed by Alderweireld at the edge of the area.
55 min: The ref has finally stopped play, albeit just to order the medics to help Rose off the pitch. The left-back has a nasty-looking gash on his hand, having been trodden on (accidentally) by an opponent.
54 min: Rose is hurt and receiving treatment on the pitch but the ref isn’t stopping play - Pochettino looks ready to explode on the sideline!
51 min: Kane, back to defend a freekick, whacks Lemar’s delivery out for a corner. Alderweireld deals with the setpiece.
49 min: Lucky Lamela! He led a swift counter-attack but failed to make up his mind as to whether to pass to Alli on his right or Kane on his left. AS he dithered, Fabinho clattered into him to concede a freekick, which rather saved lost Lamela.
47 min: Trippier mounts an early second-half raid. Coentrao blocks his 20-yard shot.
46 min: The teams are back out, the rain still pitter-pattering down. BT Sport’s commentator has just explained that Spurs had to take a bus to the match tonight because Uefa regulations insist upon it - even though Spurs’ hotel is 42 yards from the stadium! Mind you, I’m half surprised that the regulations doesn’t demand a helicopter. Maybe that’s just for people in blazers.
HALF-TIME: Monaco 0-1 Spurs
Lamela’s goal rewarded a strong first half from Spurs, but Monaco have carried a latent threat and there is still much work to be done by the visitors to secure the points. Back in a mo.
44 min: Lloris clutches a Lemar cross. He’s dominated his box well tonight.
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42 min: Tripper finds Eriksen, who helps it on to Alli. He tries to dodge his way past the last defender but for once is foiled.
40 min: Lemar, in loads of space down the left, whips in a teasing low cross. Alderweireld nicks it out for a corner. “The space in the stands certainly adds to the illusion that there is heaps of space for Spurs full backs down the wings,” hollers Jeremy Dresner. “Actually it is Monaco playing the diamond midfield. Appropriately the most bling of all possible formations.” Christmas trees can be pretty bling too, right? Indeed, in Monaco I imagine it’s not uncommon to find Christmas trees decorated with diamonds.
38 min: Ths game is opening up now and that should have been 2-0 to Tottenham! Alli was again to the fore, again showing poise beyond his years as he teed up Kane for a clear shot from 16 yards. But Kane’s low drive is blocked by Fabinho! Monaco hurtle down the other end and might have equalised if Lacina Traoré had been able to get hi head to a good cross.
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37 min: Laceina Traoré flicks a long ball on to Adama Traoré, whose shot from 15 yards is tipped around the post by Lloris.
GOAL! Monaco 0-1 Spurs (Lamela 35)
A beautifully conceived goal! Chaldi floats down the right and then feeds Alli, who shows composure and skill to sidestep the last defender. The keeper saves his shot but Lamela is on hand to roll in the rebound!
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32 min: Trippier heads a Monaco corner clear at the near post. Chaldi then heads away the corner.
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30 min: This game needs a goal. Or at least a flash of magic. Or a brawl. Something, basically, to break the stalemate.
28 min: Carvalho again shows his cunning, this time to intercept a Lamela pass as the young Argentinian sought to nip the ball through to Kane in the box.
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26 min: Adama Traore tries a swirling pot shot from 25 yards and it proves too tricky for Lloris to hold. Vertonghen is on his guard and tidied up the rebound.
23 min: Tripper, whose threat down the right has been evident since very early in the game, pings in another decent cross. Wily ol’ Carvalho read the danger and dealt with it.
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22 min: In case Mother Pochettino is following this, let me reassure her that young Mauricio is again suited. Looks very smart. No doubt he has washed behind his ears too.
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21 min: Chance for Spurs! Rose made it with an enterprising burst down the left. He slipped a ball into Kane, who drew the keeper and crossed from the byline. The ball was cleared as far as the edge of the area, where Chaldi retrieved it and tried to lob it over the out-of-position keeper and into the net. But his shot was slightly misjudged and it drifted over the bar.
19 min: Lloris gets himself in a jam by controlling a backpass when Lacina Traoré was bearing down on him. BUt he extricates himself neatly with a lovely sidestep past the giant striker.
17 min: Spurs are starting to see more of the ball and use it at the right end of the pitch. Still too sketchy with their passing once they get close to the danger zone, though.
15 min: Kane receives a pass from Eriksen on half-way. He tries to hold it up and await reinforcements but he’s dispossessed by Carvahlo before any team-mate can help him out. That’s about the extent of Kane’s involvement so far.
13 min: So the game isn’t has open as anticipated so far. And nor is their an official attendance figure yet, but the attendance is said to be below 8,000. Leeds United took more than that to MK Dons a couple of weeks ago and created an atmosphere that is the precise opposite to the eerie rattling (an occasional chant about Arsene Wenger from the away fans) we’re hearing tonight.
11 min: Monaco are hogging the ball at the moment and probing with dangerous intent, albeit mostly a tad too slowly to stretch Spurs so far.
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9 min: That’s better from Alderweireld. He was well positioned to head away at the near post after a good Monaco move and a cross from Fabinho.
7 mins: After a slow build-up, Monaco, via Coentrao, suddenly release Lacina Traoré, who slipped away from Alderweireld too easily. But he reprieved the centreback with a woeful finish, bogging it ay wide from 16 yards. “Guess what?” blurts Petr Crosby. “I’m on a plane! 150 miles south of New York City. Yup, MBM at 35,000 feet. Is it a new record? Oh and COYS.” Haven’t you been following the news this week, Peter? There’ll be MBMs on Mars any day now.
4 min: Spurs make their first incursion. Eriksen flipped the ball wide to Tripper, who had plenty of space to career down the right and hammer in a vicious low cross. Monaco turn it behind for a corner - and then clear that corner well.
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2 min: Lemar swung his corner all the way over to the back post, where Raggi arrived late to head narrowly wide. An early let-off for Spurs there.
1 min: Off we pop. Silva wins an early corner for the home following a raid down the right.
Whatever else you may say about Monaco, theirs is a marvellous jersey. Those diagonal halves really are dashing. Spurs, meanwhile, are in a light- blue/dark blue number.
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The teams waddle out on to the pitch. As ever, the Stade Louis II is not exactly a cauldron. More like a collander. The 18,500-capacity ground looks way less than half full, with many of the locals put off by the rain ... and football, such an uncouth pursuit when one could be yachting.
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Will be interesting to see how Joao Moutinho does tonight against the team for which Andre Villas-Boas was desperately keen to sign him. And, of course, it’ll also be interesting to watch Dele Alli on the day he was called into the England squad. Got to like that timing from Roy Hodgson, summoning Alli in the week that Jack Grealish finally declared for England, as if to underline that England may not really need him. Oh well, Ireland will always have one great Grealish:
Monaco have deployed a full-strength team aswell and it is very attack-oriented, Leonardo Jardim seemingly having decided that since his defence can’t be trusted, he may as well go a-rollicking. Chapeau! Entertaining fare in store.
And since Spurs are playing Swansea this weekend, let’s recall when the Swans tried their luck against Monaco. It may not be too long before those sides meet again in European competition, but it’ll be an age before this scoreline is repeated:
Glenn Hoddle will be in the gantry for BT Sport tonight so let’s recall some of the Tottenham great’s European exploits with Monaco. Here he (and Mark Hately) helps to destroy Bruges:
Usually the most remarkable thing in the stands of the Stade Louis II is all the empty spaces but it might be worth keeping an eye out tonight for any pointed banners. For it was announced this week that Monaco have been fined 10,000 euro by Uefa after a bunch of their fans held aloft a bedsheet during the Champions League playoff with a an anti-Uefa message daubed on it.
TEAMS:
Here are the line-up and isn’t it heartening to see that Pochettino is not mucking about! To dare is to do, after all:
Monaco: Subasic, Fabinho,Carvahlo, Raggi, Coentrao; Toulalan, Moutinho, A.Traoré; Silva, L.Traoré, Lemar
Subs: Nardi, Wallace, Dirar, Bakayoko, Pasalic, Carrillo, El Shaarawy
Spurs: Lloris (c), Trippier, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Rose; Alli, Dier; Chadli, Eriksen, Lamela; Kane.
Subs: Vorm, Fazio, Wimmer, Carroll, Clinton, Townsend, Winks
Preamble
Welcome, and before anyone starts rubbishing the Europa League, let’s remind ourselves of the glory that success in continental competitions can bring. How about we go all the way back to Spurs’ first European tie in 1961, when they emphatically avenged an away defeat to a Gornik Zabrze side on the rise and “Angels” were born. Marvel at this:
Now tell us the Europa League is not worth pursuing, even if Tottenham look to have a strong chance of reaching the Champions League through the Premier League this season. Besides, Monaco are there for the taking … yes, yes, that does sound like the contemptible Premier League complacency that is routinely exposed these days, but it’s true: this is a fine time to be taking on Monaco, who are struggling in Ligue 1 after a summer of sales and look particularly vulnerable defensively. Mauricio Pochettino should seek to extend Spurs’ positive momentum and solidify top spot in the group – then he can start fiddling about with his Europa League team selection if he wants. English teams need to start realising that neglecting to take the Europa League seriously makes it hard to take them seriously. So come on Spurs, got at it full-gun and give us some fun. Son Heung-min introduce himself to his new fans in beautiful style in the first group match against Qarabag, who will dare to do the honours tonight?
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Paul’s preamble.
