Jonathan Liew on the end of a Spurs era
José Mourinho speaks!
Read about Josep Ilicic's four-goal haul in Sid Lowe's report
I’ll leave you to chew over that fine soliloquy. I’m sure plenty of those words will be examined from all angles over the next few hours, days and weeks. Anyway, in lieu of all that, a reminder that Jacob Steinberg was in Germany to witness a sorry end to Tottenham’s Champions League campaign. Here’s his report ... and thanks for reading this MBM. Nighty night!
But of course that’s not it. Does this exit cause Spurs problems going forward, asks BT Sport’s Reshmin Chowdhury. “I think probably it is good. Sometimes difficult moments are ones that can prepare the future in a better way. There is nobody to blame when it looks in every match like we have a traumatic injury, that ends with months and months. We lost Son, we lost Bergwijn, and I don’t want to speak about the ones we lost so long ago. And that’s the history of this season. This season started with problems, look at the position we were in the table when I arrived. It is non-stop. Look to our bench. It’s very hard. I can’t blame the players.” So are transfers afoot? “This summer, unless something happens during the Euros, we have Sissoko, Kane, Son, Bergwijn, so that is massive.”
Mourinho’s take. “Of course I was very positive yesterday, and that’s the way I have to be all the time ... but we know that in this moment, it is very difficult, Leipzig are a very strong side ... we start the game, we had an opportunity that I thought it was almost an own goal, if you look to us lately, it was Rudiger that scored for us, it was a penalty, it’s hard ... then they come, our first couple of mistakes, they score, and after that it is very difficult ... their physicality is very impressive ... we cannot hurt people, but they can hurt us all the time ... but if I can be critical, some of my players with some mistakes, I keep for us ... they tried to give what they can give, and that’s it ... we made mistakes that we have analysed in previous matches but when you don’t have more to give, you give what you can ... it is more difficult for me to work with players who cannot express their potential than ones who play within their limits and I cannot ask more from them ... so I am with the boys, and that’s it.”
Jose’s verdict to come. But in the meantime, Jacob Steinberg’s report from Germany has landed. Here it is!
A grim-faced Dele Alli bravely faces the music on BT Sport. “It’s devastating. We had belief before the game, but this is the Champions League, and if you don’t step up, you’re going to be punished. After last year, it was a great run, so it is disappointing to go out like that. After the first goal went in, it didn’t change much because we knew we had to score two to go through. But we conceded too many chances as a team and were punished. It’s hard to come back when you’re on top and then concede two goals. We had to show maturity and fight, and we didn’t do that. We can’t use [the absence of Kane and Son] as an excuse, we still have quality on the pitch, some good players. But that’s football. We have to apologise to the fans who came out here all this way. We have to fight. We can’t be in the position we’re in in the league. We can’t give up. Confidence is obviously gone, but it’s a big game at the weekend and we have to pick ourselves up and turn this around. We have to stay together, it’s not down to one player to score goals and another to stop them. It was the whole team. We know it’s not good enough.”
Baby Mourinho 4-0 Mou Classic. To Mourinho’s credit, he goes straight over to Julian Nagelsmann and offers his opposite number warm congratulations. He then defiantly strides down the tunnel, his arm thrown around Lucas Moura. On BT Sport, Gary Lineker suggests that might be some sort of this-is-all-I’ve-got-left signal to Daniel Levy, but let’s not try to read too much into it. Though it is clear that last year’s runners-up need a serious rebuild. If they can’t turn their abysmal form around in short order - and Manchester United visit N17 on Sunday - this could be their last Champions League match for a wee while. Leipzig, by contrast, will take some stopping. For all Tottenham’s faults, they’ve been magnificent in both legs, and fully deserve to make the quarters for the first time in their short history.
FULL TIME: RB Leipzig 3-0 Tottenham Hotspur (agg: 4-0)
Leipzig - to the sound of the Beastie Boys - celebrate their advance to the quarter-finals. They’ve fought for their right to party. Fully deserved. They’ve been magnificent. Last year’s losing finalists, by contrast, are knocked out with barely a whimper.
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90 min +5: And to think it’s been something of an off night for Timo Werner. Small mercies for Spurs.
90 min +4: Fernandes has a dig from distance. His effort rolls into the arms of Gulacsi. The Leipzig faithful cheer sarcastically, somewhat cruelly given the gap in quality on display tonight.
90 min +3: “Grim as all this is, it will be as nothing as to Mourinho’s performance-art piece of a post match interview where he basically turns the entire history of Tottenham Hotspur into a dirty protest,” predicts Dom, who is currently perched “on a window ledge in Tunbridge Wells”. It’s been one of those nights for Spurs fans.
90 min +1: Aurier is replaced by Malachi Fagan-Walcott, who will be 18 tomorrow. A bittersweet early birthday present for the academy centre-half.
90 min: Spurs and an ashen-faced Mourinho just want this over. But there will be six added minutes.
89 min: Spurs have been better in this second half. But it was a low bar. Overall, they’ve been thoroughly outplayed by Leipzig over both legs.
GOAL! RB Leipzig 3-0 Tottenham Hotspur (Forsberg 87); agg 4-0
Angelino crosses from the left. Aurier slides in to clear, but can only tee up Forsberg, who slams home from eight yards with his first touch, 32 seconds after making it onto the pitch!
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86 min: Leipzig want a penalty, arguing Tanganga went in with unnecessary force. But the ref’s not interested, and we play on. But not before Leipzig’s two-goal hero is replaced by Emil Forsberg.
84 min: Upamecano romps down the middle, one-twos with Haidara, and nearly gets a shot away. Lloris comes out to claim. Tanganga comes across and gives the big defender the mother of all shoulder barges. Tanganga goes down having been clattered with some force.
82 min: Angelino makes ground down the left and feeds Werner, who wins a corner off Dier. Angelino takes. Spurs half clear. Upamecano chests down and blooters a volley straight into Tanganga’s ribcage. That’s winded the young Spurs defender, and play is stopped so he can catch his breath.
80 min: Spurs replace Lo Celso with Gedson Fernandes, the visit of Manchester United on Sunday now uppermost in Jose Mourinho’s mind.
78 min: Leipzig stroke it around the back for a while, a textbook example of game management.
76 min: Adams zips down the right. His cross is deflected off Sessegnon and out for a corner. Werner’s set piece is nothing to write home about. “Is that Mourinho managing Alli and co., or is it Mourinho’s brother?” Ladies and gentlemen, please be upstanding for Mr Phil Grey.
74 min: Moura drives down the left, beats Upamecano and pulls back for Alli, who whistles a first-time shot straight down the throat of Gulacsi. Alli goes over Sabitzer’s leg after shooting, and VAR has a look, but it’s never a penalty.
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73 min: Schick dribbles down the middle. He’s got options to the right ... but weirdly passes to nobody on the left.
71 min: Mind you, Leipzig are putting it around as well. Sabitzer is booked for bowling Alli to the ground. Everyone’s getting a little tetchy.
70 min: Alli is booked for a mist-down swipe at Angelino’s ankles. Frustration seems to have taken hold of Tottenham.
69 min: Tanganga is booked for giving Werner a rugby-style cuddle.
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68 min: Some good news on the stricken Mukiele: he was briefly unconscious, having swallowed his tongue. But thankfully he’s reportedly recovered and all is now well.
66 min: Upamecano and Haidara combine down the right with Spurs light at the back. Werner’s in the middle, and really should be found, but his team-mates over-elborate on the flank and the chance is gone.
64 min: Lamela goes in clumsily on Sabitzer. He stands on one of his ankles. Lightly? Certainly. Deliberately? It’s not clear, so the referee takes no action other than to award a free kick.
63 min: Lo Celso fires a fine pass down the left, releasing Sessegnon into space. But there’s nobody in the centre. The resulting cross, however, is put in a dangerous enough position to force Halstenberg into the panicked concession of a corner. Sadly, Lo Celso’s delivery is not all that. But there have been some recent signs of Tottenham belatedly sparking into life.
62 min: Laimer works his way down the left but can’t quite find Werner in the middle with his low cross. Spurs are able to clear.
61 min: Moura is illegally blocked by Halstenberg out on the Spurs left. Lo Celso swings a free kick into the mixer, but it’s not all that, and easily cleared by Leipzig. One first-half Lo Celso shot apart, Spurs have failed utterly in their attempts to work Gulacsi in the Leipzig goal.
60 min: A second change for Leipzig, as Amadou Haidara replaces Nkunku. The game restarts, and Werner glides in from the left before rasping a rising shot inches over the crossbar.
58 min: Moura tries to give Spurs some momentum, shooting ambitiously from distance. The shot just about stays in the arena. “Now that your good self and others have cited the Ajax comeback, if Spurs don’t do that now it means Liverpool won’t repeat their Barcelona trick tomorrow,” argues Perspective’s Ian Copestake, who may or may not be losing his mind with worry. “Come on Spurs!”
57 min: Werner slips a pass down the inside left for Schick, who balloons a wild effort yards over the bar from the left of the D. A decent chance, that, and Spurs are still clinging onto hope by their fingernails. But they need something to happen soon.
56 min: Mukiele can’t continue, he’s in some pain and distress. He lies back on the stretcher and is carted off, holding his head. God speed young man. Meanwhile on comes 21-year-old US midfielder Tyler Adams in the big Frenchman’s stead.
54 min: Worrying scenes here as the stretcher comes on for Mukiele. It’s not clear what’s happened to the big man. Thankfully he’s soon sitting up, but he looks pretty groggy. He might have taken a whack in the face from the ball.
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52 min: Lamela plays a long pass down the middle for Moura, who can’t quite get the better of Klostermann in a footrace. For a split second there, Leipzig were in trouble, but that’s staunch defending.
50 min: Laimer is booked for a check on Lamela. Replays suggest it was the nearby Upamecano who put in most of the physical work, but it’s his team-mate who cops the flak.
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49 min: Moura turns neatly in the midfield. There’s acres in front of him ... and options ... but he overruns it, allowing Leipzig to counter. Werner sashays in from the left and takes far too long to get a shot away. Spurs regain possession, thankful Werner was so uncharacteristically ponderous.
47 min: Spurs start the second half on the front foot, probing down both flanks. They annoy the hosts enough for Werner to clip Tanganga to the floor. Leipzig’s star striker escapes with a ticking-off.
Leipzig get the second half underway. Spurs had been sent out early, presumably in disgrace, by man-management guru Mourinho. They were waiting alone for a good couple of minutes. Let’s see how they respond to this motivational technique.
Half-time catharsis. It’s fair to say the Tottenham faithful aren’t in the best of moods. The floor’s yours, folks. Better out than in ... and who knows, you might even tempt fate into serving up another Ajax-style miracle. “Surely this is the end for Mourinho at Spurs?” asks Niall Sheerin. “There is nothing there. No structure or shape; no discernible tactics or style; no spirit or spunk. In ditching Poch for Mou, Levy implicitly acknowledged that he failed in his mission to ship out the deadwood and refresh the squad in the summer. Surely it’s now time for him to acknowledge the error and #bringbackPoch.”
“Mourinho is already working on his post match interview where he contrives to blame tonight’s performance on Ndombele, Luke Shaw and Eva Carneiro,” zings Stephen Carr.
Finally here’s Adam Levine: “This is the third time in recent memory where Spurs have brought in a manager who had previously managed bitter London rivals. After the unmitigated disasters that with were the reigns of George Graham and AVB who ever believed this would be a good idea? I am a Spurs fan and season ticket holder and am now willing us to lose every game between now and the end of the season so that we don’t have to suffer the indignity of Mourinho at the helm any further. In the words of Charlie Brown, good grief!”
HALF TIME: RB Leipzig 2-0 Tottenham Hotspur (agg 3-0)
And that’s the end of a miserable first 45 for Spurs. On the touchline, as his troops trudge back to the dressing room, Mourinho engages the fourth official in some heated debate. Not sure what he’s unhappy about. Not sure what he’s unhappy about in particular, that is. Spurs need something approaching an Ajax-style miracle. They’ve done it before.
45 min +1: Winks is booked for cynically clipping Laimer, who was looking to break from a nondescript Spurs attack. He doesn’t bother complaining. He had to take one for the team.
45 min: Spurs nearly concede a farcical third. Some slapstick shenanigans in their area. Dier tries to punt clear. The ball twangs off Schick’s standing leg and slowly rolls towards the bottom right. It should never go in, though Lloris nearly lets it. The keeper scoops away just in time.
44 min: Aurier bustles down the right. He thinks he’s run the ball out for a goal kick, but the ball clipped Angelino and the officials give Aurier a pleasant surprise. Lo Celso takes the corner. A chance to change the picture just before the break? Nope. Gulacsi claims with ease.
43 min: There won’t be much hope if Spurs concede another. Werner and Schick advance on the Spurs box. The visitors are fortunate that the pair get in each other’s way, allowing Tanganga to clip the ball away from danger.
41 min: This is better from Spurs! Sessegnon dinks into the box from the left. Leipzig half clear. Lo Celso cuts in from the right and curls a splendid low shot towards the bottom left. It’s heading in, but Gulacsi sticks out a strong hand to parry and Upamecano mops up without panic. So close to a precious away goal, so close to some precious hope.
40 min: Upamecano tries to release Mukiele down the inside-right channel with a glorious Beckenbaueresque rake. Just a bit too much on the long-distance pass, and it’s a goal kick. Mukiele applauds his team-mate’s ambition nonetheless.
38 min: Upamecano carelessly gives the ball away to Lamela, but then, with Moura hoping to advance towards the box, charges it down and regains possession for Leipzig. Wonderful defending. At the moment, Leipzig are in that sweet spot where they end up impressing even when they make the odd mistake.
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36 min: The free kick leads to a corner. The corner leads to a throw. The throw leads to an extended passing sequence. Spurs can’t get hold of the ball at all. This is painful viewing from a Tottenham perspective.
34 min: Sessegnon is correctly booked after overrunning the ball and raking his shoe down the back of Mukiele’s leg.
33 min: Angelino is getting a ruinous amount of space down the left. He sets in motion a move which ends in Lloris punching clear under pressure from Schick and Mukiele. “Red Bull look like they’ve had their Red Bull tonight, while Mourinho’s men have had an early Horlicks,” quips Justin Kavanagh, because somebody had to.
31 min: Leipzig look uber-relaxed at the moment, much as you’d expect them to, the state of the tie. Werner glides in from the left and tries to curl one into the top right. Too high and wide, but a decent effort nonetheless. “It seems some substitutions could do Spurs good here. I suggest Wanyama in the middle, Llorente in attack.” Sports satirist Eivind Krohg, ladies and gentlemen.
29 min: Alli bursts down the left and is clipped from behind by Upamecano, who really should be booked. But it’s just a free kick. Spurs waste their set piece in short order, and suddenly Leipzig are breaking at speed, yet again. Werner is found just inside the box to the right. He takes a touch and lashes a shot straight at Lloris, presumably having decided that anything might happen. This time Lloris parries with strong hands.
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27 min: Werner crosses from the right, but his ball is too high for Schick in the middle. Spurs are hanging on.
26 min: The hosts do very little with their corner. This is such an open game, though. The chances of it ending 2-0 tonight look extremely slim.
25 min: But it’s Leipzig who look most likely to score the next goal. Angelino is afforded yet more space down the left, and he wins a corner off Aurier. Tottenham were ludicrously light at the back there, with Werner in the middle lurking. Spurs clear the corner and try to break through Alli and Lamela, but Mukiele wins the ball back, Leipzig spring back upfield, and win another corner.
23 min: Spurs are really up against it now. But again, let us remember: this is exactly where they were in Amsterdam last season, and look what happened there. It’s a straw-clutching exercise, of course it is, but this is all Tottenham have got right now. An away goal before half-time could change everything.
GOAL! RB Leipzig 2-0 Tottenham Hotspur (Sabitzer 21); agg 3-0
What a stunning goal this is! From the centre circle, Laimer sprays a ball down the right for Angelino, who crosses towards Sabitzer at the near post. Sabitzer powers a header down towards the bottom-left corner and in! There were a couple of Spurs mistakes - Aurier missed a header from Laimer’s pass, while Lloris was again weak of wrist - but take nothing away from the wonderful sweep of the move.
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19 min: Leipzig have the ball in the net again. Some space for Angelino down the left. His low cross flies across the face of goal, and is tapped in with great ease by Werner. But Werner had needlessly gone early, and it’s clearly offside. Werner, overly eager, let Spurs off the hook there.
18 min: Moura works some space down the right and forces Upamecano into conceding a corner with a low cross. Nothing comes from the set piece.
17 min: Dier and Tanganga hesitate, nearly allowing Werner to nip between them and race goalwards with the ball. Dier makes a last-ditch tackle to save the situation, before rollocking his young team-mate in the trenchant style. Spurs need to gather themselves, and quick.
16 min: A shot of Mourinho responding to the goal pictures him gesticulating with one outstretched arm before turning away in disgust. It’s a textbook performance of the internationally recognised mime for See What I Have To Work With?! He’s not a happy man.
14 min: But that goal has understandably deflated Spurs, while putting a fresh blast of wind in Leipzig’s sail. Momentum’s shifted. Mukiele ripples the side netting from a tight angle, though the flag belatedly goes up for offside.
12 min: Spurs fans shouldn’t get too disheartened yet. Their team started well. And the narrative arc of this tie is following last year’s semi-final against Ajax. If history is to repeat, another goal for Leipzig before half-time and it really is on!
GOAL! RB Leipzig 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur (Sabitzer 10); agg 2-0
Laimer scampers down the right and cuts back for Werner, whose shot from just inside the box is blocked. Werner recycles possession and tees up his captain Sabitzer, who arrows a low shot towards the bottom left. It’s a decent effort, though Lloris should tip it round the post. A weak hand and it’s in. A tale of two captains, and now Spurs are really up against it.
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8 min: During that last attack, Alderweireld had his arms wrapped around Schick, who made a half-arsed plea for a penalty kick. There wasn’t enough in it, though the Spurs defender will need to stop that if he doesn’t want to risk needless bother.
6 min: Leipzig respond with their first serious attack of the evening. Werner presses down the right. Spurs are on the back foot. The ball’s worked towards Angelino, just inside the box, on the left. Leaning back, Angelino tries to whip a diagonal shot towards the bottom right, but gets it all wrong. It’s open.
5 min: Some space for Alli out on the right. He swings a low cross into the box, hoping to find Lamela. Klostermann is on point and able to clear. Beforehand, Moura nearly got on the end of a long ball, only to be denied by Upamecano. This is a lively start by the visitors.
4 min: Sessegnon makes himself known down the left, and looks to have won a corner, but the flag goes up for offside. For a split second there, the home team looked exposed. An encouraging moment for Spurs.
3 min: Not that Leipzig have started much better themselves. Angelino takes a throw that sails infield and curls straight back out of play. Werner, hoping he’d be found on the half-way line, out on the left, gives the it-doesn’t-matter thumbs-up.
2 min: And on that very subject, Dier overhits a simple backpass and concedes a ridiculous corner. Angelino to take from the right. Moura clears at the near post. In the dugout, Jose doesn’t look particularly impressed at what he’s just witnessed, but he soon gathers himself and reaches the touchline for an encouraging clap.
And we’re off! The visitors get this second leg underway. It’s the very first Champions League knockout game at the RB Arena, and the home crowd aren’t disappointing. A fine noise .. and a hectic, pinball start. A few nerves on display, but not much control.
The teams are out! Leipzig line up in their white shirts with red trim, while Spurs are resplendent in second-choice navy blue. A cracking atmosphere at a packed, Coronavirus-defying RB Arena, the 2,300 travelling Spurs fans making themselves heard as best they can. It’s time for the official Uefa remix of Zadok the Priest, the coin toss, and some pre-match pleasantries. It won’t be long before the game is underway!
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Jose Mourinho speaks. “We have nothing to lose. We are already losing. I believe we are going to do it. We go with everything. It is not much that we have. But we go with everything.” That’s from a pre-record from yesterday with BT Sport. No word from him this evening, though he has been spotted exchanging elbow-taps (damn this virus) with his opposite number Julian Nagelsmann.
Pre-match presents. At first glance, you could be forgiven for thinking little or no effort had gone into the bland pennant Marcel Sabitzer will hand over before kick-off. But squint a little harder: it’s been designed to look like a polo shirt. Full marks for busting tapered-flag convention wide open, if nothing else.
By way of contrast, Hugo Lloris will be gifting this far more classical bit of official tat. Spurs will be playing in dark blue, incidentally, forced into the change because Leipzig’s first-choice colours are also white.
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Leipzig make one change to the side sent out at the all-new Spurs stadium three weeks ago. The 21-year-old French defender Dayot Upamecano replaces Ethan Ampadu, the 19-year-old Welsh loanee from Chelsea, at the back.
Tottenham make four changes to the side defeated in the first leg. Davinson Sanchez, Ben Davies, Gedson Fernandes and Steven Bergwijn make way for Japhet Tanganga, Ryan Sessegnon, Eric Dier and Erik Lamela. Of those dropped, only Fernandes is named as a sub. Sanchez meanwhile failed a fitness test; youth-team defender Malachi Fagan-Walcott, 18 tomorrow, gets a surprise call-up to the bench as a result.
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The teams
RB Leipzig: Gulacsi, Klostermann, Upamecano, Halstenberg, Mukiele, Sabitzer, Laimer, Angelino, Nkunku, Schick, Werner.
Subs: Haidara, Poulsen, Forsberg, Adams, Lookman, Olmo, Mvogo.
Tottenham Hotspur: Lloris, Alderweireld, Dier, Tanganga, Aurier, Winks, Lo Celso, Sessegnon, Lamela, Lucas Moura, Alli.
Subs: Vertonghen, Gazzaniga, Ndombele, Skipp, Fernandes, Parrott, Fagan-Walcott.
Referee: Carlos Del Cerro (Spain).
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Preamble
This looks like an uphill battle for Spurs, who at the halfway point of this Champions League round-of-16 tie, are trailing to knockout new boys RB Leipzig after a 0-1 loss at home. Jose Mourinho’s men have lost four of their last five fixtures in all competitions, drawing the other slightly fortuitously at Burnley on Saturday. They need to snap that run with victory tonight, though their record this season of four wins in 21 away matches in all competitions won’t fill them with too much confidence. Nor will the fact they’ve lost all three of their matches against Bundesliga opposition in this campaign: the first leg of this tie, plus 3-1 and 7-2 defeats to Bayern Munich in the groups.
But all is not lost. In-form Leipzig may have won three and drawn two of their last five games, but they’ve already lost at home in the Champions League this season, to Lyon. The 0-2 scoreline that evening is exactly the one Spurs require to get through. Additionally, while Tottenham’s 2019-20 record against German teams is abysmal, they brushed aside Borussia Dortmund at this stage last season. And it’s impossible to forget their last knockout tie in which they lost the first leg 0-1 at home. Spurs may not have won the competition last season, but they’ll always have Amsterdam.
So this is balanced nicely. In Leipzig’s favour, yes, but Spurs are far from out of it. And while Jose Mourinho has his critics - whisper it, more than one or two, we’ve heard - he knows a thing or two about inspiring Champions League wins that looked almost impossible on paper. Just ask Manchester United (279 European Cup matches, seen off by Porto in 2004) or Barcelona (317, worked over by Inter in 2010). In that respect, Leipzig (13) will hold him no fears. It’s on!
Kick off: 8pm GMT, 9pm local in Saxony.
