Our match report:
Elsewhere in the group ...
Monaco have beaten CSKA Moscow 3-0, which means Spurs are now third in the group, two points behind Bayer Leverkusen and in something of a pickle regarding qualification for the last 16. I suspect Mauiricio Pochettino will have a long sleepless night puzzling over what the devil went wrong with his team tonight. It was a very peculiar performance and far from the ideal preparation ahead of his side’s trip to the Arsenal on Sunday.
Full-time: Spurs 0-1 Bayer Leverkusen
Peep! Peep! Peeeeeep! It’s all over. Tottenham Hotspur have lost 1-0 following an uncharacteristically dreadful performance. It was downright weird, truth be told - almost all their players were terrible. We all have bad days at the office, but this one was as bad a one as I’ve seen Tottenham Hotspur endure since Mauricio Pochettino took over. They were very, very lucky to get away with a 1-0 defeat.
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90+4 min: Great play from Volland, who runs the ball into the corner to hold it up and waste time. He wins a corner off Dele Alli, right in front of the Leverkusen fans. It’s played short, obviously, then Bayer win another corner, followed by a throw-in. This is a masterclass in running down the clock and their fans are loving it!
90+2 min: N’Koudou scorches down the left flank, but overcooks his cross. It soars over the heads of everyone in the penalty area.
90 min: There’ll be five minutes of added time. Spurs win a free-kick deep in their own half as Bayer Leverkusen commit an infringement while attempting to run down the clock and secure their first win on English soil.
88 min: Tottenham charge forward with Kyle Walker on the ball, but he’s dispossessed and Bayer Leverkusen advance in the other direction with Wendell putting in the hard yards. More and more empty seats can be seen in the previously full stadium and Tottenham’s remaining supporters are sitting in silence. Their team could still rescue a point they scarcely deserve. If they play like this against Arsenal on Sunday at lunchtime, they will get slaughtered.
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86 min: Bayer Leverkusen substitution: Charles Aranguiz off, Kai Havertz on. Both Aranguiz and Kampl limped off with injuries.
85 min: Bayer Leverkusen substitution: goal-scorer Kevin Kampl off, Kevin Volland, the club’s record signing, on.
84 min: Now it’s Ben Davies’s turn to go close as he pulls a left-footed shot inches wide of the upright.
82 min: So close! Eric Dier takes the free-kick and rattles the crossbar with a loud clang. The ball bounces down and back into play, but there’s nobody in a Spurs shirt on hand to poke the ball home with the Bayer Leverkusen defence in complete disarray.
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81 min: Dele Alli wins a free-kick on the edge of the Bayer Leverkusen penalty area, well right of centre.
80 min: Calhanoglu plays the ball to the far post, where Omer Toprak’s looping header threatens to drop under the cross-bar, but eventually lands on the roof of the goal.
79 min: Mehmedi plays the ball wide to Kampl, who gets forward. Bayer Leverkusen win a corner.
76 min: Victor Wanyama throws a mini-strop when a throw-in deep inside the Spurs half doesn’t go his team’s way. Bayer Leverkusen take it, the ball finds its way to Hernandez on the edge of the box and his shot is blocked by Ben Davies. The Spurs defender goes down injured, with the force of Little Pea’s piledriver having apparently damaged his ankle. Meanwhile in the stands, Tottenham fans are beginning to leave.
73 min: Spurs use their final substitution: Son makes way for Georges-Kevin N’Koudou.
72 min: With the thick end of 20 minutes to go, it’s Bayer Leverkusen’s supporters who are making the most noise at Wembley, where the official attendance is 85,512. Many of them will be scratching their heads in bewilderment at a bizarre Tottenham performance. They’ve been weirdly out of sorts, but could still rescue something from this match.
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67 min: Spurs substitution: Christian Eriksen off, Harry Winks on. Bayer Leverkusen substitution: Julian Brandt off, Hakan Calhanoglu on.
66 min: Spurs have been riding their luck here and they’re finally punished. Kampl takes advantage after a couple of deflections off assorted Spurs defenders to slot the ball just inside the left upright from close range after the Spurs back four had failed to clear a Charles Aranguiz shot from distance. Kyle Walker with the assist there, on an evening when he and some of his colleagues are playing as if they’ve been drugged.
GOAL! Spurs 0-1 Bayer Leverkusen (Kampl 65)
The man with the white bandage, which is in fact a thick peroxide blond thatch of hair on his head, opens the scoring after Tottenham’s defence are finally punished for an uncharacteristically awful performance.
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62 min: More comedy defending from Spurs and again Leverkusen fail to take advantage. Eric Dier miscontrols a dropping ball, then completely undercooks a headed backpass towards Hugo Lloris in his attempts to redeem himself.
He’s mugged of possession, the ball is squared for Hernandez and the Mexican misses with two consecutive shots. The first is blocked by Vertonghen, while he shoots the second straight at Lloris. How did he not score?
60 min: Kyle Walker redeems his first half indiscretions with a driving run through the inside right of the Leverkusen penalty area, before squaring the ball across the face of goal. Vincent Janssen can’t reach it.
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59 min: Another counter-attack from Spurs comes to naught when Ben Davies messes up a pass into Vincent Janssen at the near post. Jonathan Tah is on hand to clear up for Leverkusen.
58 min: Kyle Walker blocks from Kevin Kampl as the winger with the white bandage on his head attempts a shot from distance.
56 min: After a lively start to the second half, in which Spurs initially looked a lot more impressive, the game has died a bit of a death. Word in Guardian Towers is that the FC Copenhagen v Leicester match is even worse, which I suppose is some small consolation.
53 min: Good ball through the inside left channel into the Spurs penalty area from Brandt to Kampl. He crosses for Hernandez, who is penalised for a foul.
51 min: Son skips down the left touchline and tries to cross the ball, but it’s put out for a corner by Benjamin Henrichs. Ben Davies swings the ball into the mixer, where Bernd Leno gathers.
48 min: Christian Eriksen pulls the ball inches wide of the left upright seconds after it looked as if Dele Alli was tripped just inside the Leverkusen penalty area by Oliver Toprak. So close from Eriksen, but should Tottenham have had a penalty? Replays are inconclusive, which shows just how difficult it is for referees these days.
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47 min: Bernd Leno, who I spent the first half referring to as Bernd “Lend” (now corrected), due to an inability to read my own increasingly bad handwriting, hacks the ball down the field. Spurs clear.
Second half: Spurs 0-0 Bayer Leverkusen
46 min: The players get the second half started and I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that several Tottenham players looked very sheepish indeed as they walked out to resume play. They were dreadful in that first half and are very lucky not to be a couple of goals down.
Meanwhile in the south of France: Group leaders Monaco are leading CSKA Moscow 3-0.
Half-time: Spurs 0-0 Bayer Leverkusen
Spurs get the ball into the Bayer Leverkusen goal courtesy of Dele Alli after Janssen had a shot saved, but it’s disallowed for a foul in the build-up. The sides go in at the break with the deadlock unbroken, a state of affairs that will please Spurs no end, considering the number of mistakes they’ve made in possession of the ball in front of their own goal. Some of their play has been breathtakingly bad and a less toothless team would have punished them severely. As things stand, however, it’s all to play for.
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43 min: What a miss! Bayer Leverkusen miss a glorious opportiunity to open the scoring, when Julian Brandt pounces to catch Kyle Walker dozing in possession on the edge of his own penalty are. He’s tackled by Vertonghen and the ball breaks to Hernandez, who pulls a low drive wide of the upright from the edge of the area when he looked certain to score. Actually, it took a deflection off Jan Vertonghen, but I’d have put the farm on Hernandez scoring from there. Woeful stuff from Walker. Spurs have been dreadful in possession around their own penalty area.
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41 min: Spurs win a throw-in on the halfway line, which Walker chucks towards Vincent Janssen. Yep, it’s that exciting. We’ve had one attempt on goal so far, a shot straight at Leverkusen goalkeeper Bernd Lend by Christian Eriksen.
39 min: Walker plays the ball down the right wing with Moussa Sissoko in hot pursuit. There’s a mite too much welly on it and Leverkusen central defender Omer Toprak comes across to clear.
This one could run and run
35 min: “Please remind the mailers and wikileaks that 87.000 comes nowhere near the record attendance,” writes Patrick D’Arcy in Germany. “What about the 300,000 at the ‘23 cup final? Or does that not count as a ‘club match’?”
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33 min: Christian Eriksen stings the palms of Bernd Leno with a rasping shot from about 30 yards. He was bearing down on the Leverkusen penalty area with options to his left and right, but decided to shoot as the opposition defenders were backing off him. Leno can only parry the ball straight in front of him, but there’s no Tottenham player on hand to capitalise on his error.
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32 min: Meanwhile in the south of France, Monaco are now leading CSKA Moscow 2-0.
30 min: Tottenham substitution: Mousa Dembele off, Vincent Janssen on. Is Dembele injured? I think so, but can’t be sure. He has a long chat with Pochettino as he leaves the field, but doesn’t look angry at being taken off.
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29 min: Spurs win a corner, which Bayer Leverkusen clear as far as Kyle Walker. He loses possession with a poor pass to Dele Alli, inviting Leverkusen to gallop clear on the counter. Mousa Dembele, who appears to be injured, sprints back to prevent Julian Brandt teeing up Mehmedi.
28 min: Having been contentiously left out, it looks as if striker Vincent Janssen is about to come on for Spurs.
27 min: Leverkusen move the ball down the right flank, before switching to the left where left-back Wendell gets on the ball. Spurs retrieve possession, before winning the ball back again.
25 min: With over a quarter of the match gone, Roger Schmidt will be the happier of the two managers. Both sides are looking dangerous on the counter-attack, but Tottenham look as if it’s only a matter of time before they gift the away side a goal courtesy of some calamitous rick most likely to come from their attempts to play the ball out from the back under pressure from their opponents.
23 min: Good counter-attacking play from Tottenham Hotspur. Dele Alli plays the ball forward up the inside right channel, picking out Sissoko. He crosses, goalkeeper Leno spills the ball and a Leverkusen defender hacks clear before anyone in a Spurs shirt can react.
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21 min: Julian Brandt takes advantage of some more sloppy Spurs play at the back, with Christian Eriksen the guilty party on this occasion. Brandt picks out Hernandez, who crosses to the far post. Kyle Walker clears.
More on tonight's attendance ...
“According to Wikipedia, to whom I’ve outsourced large chunks of my memory (which will be a problem come the zombie apocalypse),” this is the largest attendance ever at a club match in England,” writes Kári Tulinius. “The second is Tottenham’s Monaco game, and third is Manchester City v Stoke in the FA Cup sixth round in 1934. The modern Wembley’s a monstrous stadium.”
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16 min: Walker is on hand to intercept a Javier Hernandez pull-back from the byline, with Mehmedi loitering with intent. Spurs gallop upfield on the counter-attack but Leverkusen snuff out the danger as Moussa Sissoko attempts to pick out Dele Alli.
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14 min: Spurs continue to look uncertain in defence under pressure from Leverkusen’s front men when they’re in possession. This time Kyle Walker clears up with a firm back-pass to his goalkeeper, who clears.
13 min: Free-kick for Leverkusen wide on the left in line with the right side of the Tottenham penalty area. Wendell takes it, but sends the ball sailing into the arms of Hugo Lloris. Elsewhere in this group, Monaco have taken the lead against CSKA Moscow.
11 min: Christian Eriksen takes the free-kick, curling the ball from the left flank into the penalty area. Leverkusen goalkeeper Bernd Leno gathers with a minimum of fuss.
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10 min: Dele Alli wins a free-kick for Spurs as he attempts to skip in from the left flank past Jonathan Tah, who brings him down. The Leverkusen central defender is lucky to avoid a booking.
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9 min: Spurs get forward with Kyle Walker on the ball. He’s dispossessed, but Spurs win a throw-in halfway inside the Bayer Leverkusen half. They need some time to regroup after a very poor start.
7 min: Crikey! More slapstick defending enables Bayer Leverkusen to carve open their defence again, but the home side are saved by the linesman’s flag after Mehmedi drifts offside while pouncing on Julian Brandt’s through ball.
6 min: Nothing comes of the corner, which Moussa Sissoko clears after Charles Aranguiz sends the ball towards the near post.
4 min: A shaky start from Spurs, who are getting themselves in all sorts of bother. Bayer Leverkusen attack down the right, before Julian Baumgartlinger crosses for Kevin Kampl. Kyle Walker puts the ball out for a corner.
2 min: Hugo Lloris tries to play the ball out from the back, pinging the ball wide to Ben Davies and selling the full-back woefully short. He scrambles to recover before Admir Mehmedi can pounce and capitalise.
Spurs v Bayer Leverkusen is go ...
1 min: Javier Hernandez drops to his knees for a quick a last-second pray before kick-off and then Spurs get the ball rolling. Their players are wearing white shirts, shorts and socks. Bayer Leverkusen’s wear black shirts, shorts and socks with red trim.
Make that ...
... a club match in England since the advent of all-seater stadiums, I’m guessing.
Not long now ...
The teams line up in the tunnel, before marching out to be greeted by a crowd estimated to be approximately 87,000, a record attendance for a club match in England.
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A question from James from Reading
“What’s happened to Kevin Wimmer this season?” he asks. “He looked good last season covering for JV, but now looks to be behind Dier and Carter-Vickers in the pecking order.”
I’m not too sure, James. His pre-season was interrupted by injury, but despite signing a five year contract in July, he’s only had two run-outs in the EFL Cup so far this season. Mauricio Pochettino has shown he can be completely ruthless with players who don’t buy into his philosophy, but I have no idea if that’s the case with Wimmer. He did say in an interview during the last international break that he’s frustrated by his lack of opportunities this season.
Meanwhile in another iconic London venue
There’s another November evening of what can loosely be termed “football entertainment” being hosted by people who, like Tottenham’s players, are also being forced to perform outside of their comfort zone. Do come along if you’re in the locale.
Tottenham Hotspur v Bayer Leverkusen line-ups
Tottenham Hotspur: Lloris, Walker, Dier, Vertonghen, Davies, Sissoko, Wanyama, Dembele, Eriksen, Alli, Son.
Subs: Vorm, Rose, Janssen, Nkoudou, Onomah, Winks, Carter-Vickers.
Bayer Leverkusen: Leno, Henrichs, Toprak, Tah, Wendell, Kampl,
Baumgartlinger, Aranguiz, Brandt, Mehmedi, Hernandez.
Subs: Ozcan, Dragovic, Calhanoglu, Kiessling, Jedvaj, Havertz,
Volland.
Referee: Jonas Eriksson (Sweden)
Some inside info from Guardian "sources" ...
Here is Tottenham's team for their clash at Wembley this evening. Follow Spurs v Leverkusen here: https://t.co/CMVwJsnPSc pic.twitter.com/ZslDKyd2la
— Sky Sports News HQ (@SkySportsNewsHQ) November 2, 2016
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Hugo Lloris was the hero in Germany
It was scoreless between these two sides after 90 minutes in Germany, where Hugo Lloris pulled off some impressive saves to earn his team a share of the points. David Hytner watched the action for the Guardian.
Roger Schmidt speaks ...
The Bayer Leverkusen boss had this to say in his pre-match press conference: “We’re really looking forward to playing here at this very special venue,” he said. “Wembley is truly a highlight. Obviously it’s an important game and it’s down to us to show what we can do on the pitch. We want to perform to our best and if we perform as we can then we have a very good chance.”
On the subject of tonight’s opposition, he mused: “We know from the first game how tough Tottenham are, but we showed in the second half that we can cause them problems. We’ll be looking to do the same again here. We know that Tottenham are outstanding in the transition. But so are we.” That’s fighting talk!!!
Mauricio Pochettino speaks ...
Asked what his side needs to do to win tonight, the Argentinian said: “We need to be clever now, to play with intensity from the first moment of the game. [Wembley] needs to inspire us: 90,000 people that support you and are behind you must be a big problem for our opponents. It’s important for us because we understand that this game will be key. We understand that Leverkusen are a very good team. It’ll be tough but we are conscious that we need to take the three points if we want to go to the next round.” And to think some people say these pre-match press conferences are a waste of time, eh? And Poch is one of the more interesting and jovial characters on the circuit.
Early team news ...
Harry Kane isn’t the only conspicuous absentee from the Spurs ranks, with Toby Alderweireld also sidelined with a knee injury that has caused him to miss the past four games. Erik Lamela is also out, having suffered a hip problem in training yesterday.
It's the group nobody wants to win ...
Well, not literally but after three rounds of games, Monaco top Group E with just five points, while Tottenham are second behind them on four and Bayer Leverkusen are third on three. CSKA Moscow bring up the rear on two but are by no means out of contention for qualification for the knockout stages.
Having drawn four and lost one of their past five matches in all competitions, Spurs aren’t playing particularly badly but are finding goals hard to come by in the absence of Harry Kane. Their match against Bayer Leverkusen in Germany ended scoreless and tonight at Wembley, Mauricio Pochettion will once again be without his main striker. Tottenham are playing their Champions League matches at FA HQ this season due to reduced capacity at White Hart Lane.
It is a situation that many feel is disadvantageous to the north London side, for reasons that seem fairly spurious. The Wembley pitch is bigger than it’s White Hart Lane counterpart, two metres wider and fiv e metres longer. However, Mauricio Pochettino has previously stated that he his side is handicapped by the tight environs of their usual home playing surface in North London, which is one of the smallest in the Premier League.
Between the extra acreage afforded to them at Wembley, not to mention the tens of thousands of extra fans that can be accommodated to help create a hostile atmosphere, the task of winning there should not be as difficult as some are claiming. The counter-argument is that visiting teams get a lift from the novelty of playing in such iconic and well appointed surroundings. There may well be a grain of truth to this, but let’s not pretend the professionals of Monaco, Bayer Leverkusen and CSKA Moscow are some sort of easily impressed straw-sucking football yokels who have never played in big stadiums before. Anyway, kick off is at 7.45pm (GMT), but stay tuned for team news and build-up.
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