Barney Ronay on a wild night in north London
Read Jamie Jackson on Manchester City’s win over Dinamo Zagreb
Our Champions League round-up, right here:
And that will do! Wow, what an odd night. Thanks for joining me for it, and see you again soon!
POCHETTINO SPEAKS!
“I don’t need too much time to explain. I think we played 30 minuted really really well, really compact and aggressive. Unlucky that we conceded at the end of the first half for 2-1, and of cure after that they were very clinical. I think there’s not very much difference on the attempts but they were very clinical. We scored a penalty and had some chances to score a third but of course we conceded three more goals and it’s a tough, tough result. I think it’s too much and hard to accept this kind of result but that happens when your opponent has so much quality and is so clinical in front of goal. We are very disappointed and upset but need to stay all together.
“In this type of situation you need to face it. You need to be strong and keep going. We need to stay all together. The best medicine is to be all together, help each other, not find people guilty. Of course when you receive this type of result it’s important to bounce back and believe in yourselves. That is the only way to recover the good feeling.”
Fairly light stuff there, really. Wonder if he’s really feeling that philosophical ...
You’ll want to get your hands on this – David Hytner’s report from an extraordinary night:
If you’re wondering where any post-match reaction from Pochettino is, we are told that Spurs are “in a meeting”.
“Liverpool bounced back from losing a final by winning the whole shebang. Obviously, this is one isolated group match, but it’s hard to see Spurs following that lead,” observes Matt Dony.
I've honestly never seen a 2-7 before. Look at it. It doesn't even look right. When was the last 2-7 in (vaguely top-level) football?
— Michael Cox (@Zonal_Marking) October 1, 2019
It is a collector’s item alright!
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What impressed me about Bayern there was the way in which, as soon as they scented blood, they went for it. No messing about. Once the third went in it was clear they could streak away.
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@NickAmes82 Yep, I'm #PochOut now. How can a manager come back from a match like that and say his job is secure?
— Michael D (@m_d_o_o) October 1, 2019
If we hold on a little while we might find out ...
@NickAmes82 Seven, and to think Bayern should have had a penalty for Rose’s contact in the box. These Spurs players are either not good enough or not interested in being there. Shameful.
— Rob Moore (@hankbobbym) October 1, 2019
An unsparing assessment. It might be the second part, you know. What on earth has gone wrong?
In the group’s other game Red Star Belgrade have beaten Olympiakos 3-1, making Spurs’ upcoming double-header with the Serbian side all the more crucial. But for now the story is very much in north London. Any reaction you’d like to send in? Are these really the last days of Poch? I’ve never thought so but what we saw just then was deeply, deeply alarming.
Full-time: Spurs 2-7 (SEVEN) Bayern Munich
I ... errrrm .... well. The boos ring out. This was quite extraordinary.
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90 min: Bayern have been brilliant for the final hour but this isn’t normal, is it? There’s something wrong with – at - Spurs.
Goal! Spurs 2-7 Bayern (Gnabry 88)
What on earth is happening? It’s SEVEN! Gnabry has time to shoot right-footed on the edge of the area, sets himself and whips it past Lloris. Spurs have gone; this has been a quite terrible, terrible capitulation and the repercussions may be long-lasting.
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Goal! Spurs 2-6 Bayern (Lewandowski 87)
This is very messy now. Bayern work this beautifully after Alderweireld gives the ball away, Coutinho nudging a delightful first-time pass to Lewandowski with the outside of his foot and the striker finishing devastatingly.
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86 min: Ultimately, this has been a schooling for Spurs. It’s as if they are an elastic band that’s stretched beyond its limit. How do you get that old tension back?
Goal! Spurs 2-5 Bayern (Gnabry 83, hat-trick)
And there’s the proof for you. This is brilliant. Bayern keep the ball, wait their moment and then Thiago springs Gnabry through with a 60-yard ball from deep. His first touch, as it drops, is quite sumptuous and he runs through before finishing with aplomb.
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81 min: Gnabry has been sensational tonight by the way, and not only for his goals. He looks so, so sharp. World-class. Winks now comes off and Lamela comes on, in Spurs’ next throw.
79 min: So gets to the byline but completely messes up a ball back to a teammate. A rare off note from him.
77 min: This game has had very, very few flat spells but we are amid one. Spurs need something fast now, and hope Eriksen can provide it but the sub shoots wastefully over from the edge of the area when there are better options.
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74 min: Coutinho drags one wide and I just wonder if Bayern have rode out that little Spurs flurry now.
73 min: Oh, and I missed Perisic coming on for Coman there.
72 min: Lucas Moura comes on for the quiet Alli, and Bayern bring on Javi Martinez for Boateng, who seems to be injured and is being helped off.
70 min: No, it wasn’t given. Coman was on his way down but there was contact. Not clear and obvious, seemingly, and I’m all for VAR letting refs abide by their own decisions. But I still think Spurs got a bit lucky there ...
69 min: It’s very stretched out there now ... and Coman wants a penalty after Rose slides in and seems to take his legs away. Not given and I think that was fortunate. But they’re having another look ...
66 min: Lewandowski does brilliantly to surge down the left and tee up Gnabry, whose eyes light up the the hat-trick ... but a combination of Vertonghen and Alderweireld lurches in to make him miscue. Then Eriksen takes aim from 20 yards and forces a brilliant tip from Neuer! That’s a fine save and stops Spurs giving themselves real hope!
64 min: Oh, that could have been 4-3. In fairness it’s a difficult, dropping ball 16 yards out for Sissoko and he can’t keep it down. Now Ndombele comes off, after fading following that fine first 30, and here is Eriksen ...
63 min: Big 10 minutes or so now. Will Bayern keep hold of things or do Spurs have the wind in their sails?
Goal! Spurs 2-4 Bayern (Kane 61 pen)
Put away neatly, and now then!! We could have some half-hour ahead of us ...
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Yes, it’s given. Looked a bit iffy to me. But now they can get back into it through Kane ...
Penalty to Spurs
Coman clips Rose in the box, and Bayern aren’t happy because his foot was high as he took possession. But Spurs have a lifeline ... I think. VAR check ...
58 min: A question, and one I’d have asked before his lapse just then. How good is Harry Winks? I don’t mean “How GOOD is Harry Winks?!?!”. I’m more asking if he’s really a top-level midfielder, or got what it takes to be one. I think he can look really nice but I’m not sure. Oh hold on ...
57 min: I’m, errr, not sure what Spurs do now. Of course they try to get back into it. But Bayern are exploiting space ruthlessly and they won’t want this getting any messier.
Spurs 1-4 Bayern (Gnabry 55)
And he’s done it again! Do Bayern think they’re playing Arsenal? Winks is caught on the ball and Bayern are on him like a flash. It’s spirited left to Gnabry, who slots in off the post, and that is the game right there.
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Goal! Spurs 1-3 Bayern (Gnabry 53)
What a strike this is from the ex-Arsenal man! Just clinical. He gets a run on Alderweireld on the left side after playing a sweet one-two near halfway, cuts inside, feints to shoot and then does – cracking it viciously across Lloris. Long, long way back for Spurs now.
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50 min: Coutinho sends Lewandowski on a run and Spurs are a bit fortunate that a loose touch invites Alderweireld to clear up. The defender then releases Alli with a wonderful diagonal, but his shot doesn’t really work Neuer too hard.
48 min: Vertonghen blocks from Lewandowski and Tolisso shoots wide. Spurs don’t want to concede again.
47 min: “Looking at the team sheet I see at least one Bayern substitute who could come in and make a Cuisance of himself,” notes Peter Oh. I’ll let you all scroll down to work that one out.
46 min: Kane gets an early yellow for leaving his arm out in an aerial challenge.
Peeeeeep! Second half underway!
Bayern bring on Thiago for Alaba, who did get a bit of a clatter earlier.
Expectations for the second half? If Spurs can ratchet up the tempo again they could still draw or even win this game, definitely.
Other scores:
Man City 0-0 Dinamo Zagreb
Red Star Belgrade 0-1 Olympiakos
Lokomotiv Moscow 0-0 Atletico Madrid
Juventus 1-0 Bayer Leverkusen
Galatasaray 0-0 PSG
We’ve got the thriller tonight, so far!
Half-time: Spurs 1-2 Bayern
Well! Spurs led, were pegged back, could have led again and were full throttle for half an hour. But Bayern seized a measure of control in the latter stages and Lewandowski capitalised brilliantly. All to play for after a rattling good half!
Goal! Spurs 1-2 Bayern (Lewandowski 45)
It’s been all Bayern for the last 15 minutes and we can’t say this wasn’t coming. Lewandowski is involved early in the move with a quite delicious flick by the right byline, resulting in a penalty claim from Tolisso. But play continues and Lewandowski, by now on the edge of the area, turns and cracks in a lethal low finish!
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44 min: ... who flops a low one wide, that snicks off the wall. Not worth the two-minute buildup! Anyhow, Bayern do get a corner out of it, defended well by Alderweireld.
43 min: Ndombele is booked for fouling Coutinho, who had got to his feet very quickly from a previous challenge and retrieved the ball. It’s in a brilliant position for Bayern and the numerous players who would fancy this one. Looks like Lewandowski ...
41 min: Gnabry forces Lloris to beat away a meaty cross-shot, and Spurs still can’t really get out at the moment.
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39 min: A Bayern corner from the left. They are seeing much more of the ball now. Coutinho’s delivery is good but Spurs flick it away.
38 min: Matt Richman writes on Son ...
“As a not-Spurs fan, I have to agree with Mr. Ray. Beyond being someone who has yet to have an egregiously negative headline associated with him, he is pacy, has a relentless work ethic, and a direct-but-still-technical style that would make him an asset on literally any team. He’s one of my favourite active players these days; I just wish he wore a different shirt.”
36 min: A continuation of this good Bayern patch sees Alderweireld crane his neck crucially to stop Kimmich’s dink reaching Lewandowski.
35 min: Coman fizzes one wide of Lloris’s left post now. Bayern, after a rocky spell, have come back into it.
33 min: Lewandowski barges Winks off the ball fairly in midfield and suddenly Bayern look awash with possibility ... until Sissoko comes back and blocks Coman off well. Then Alaba crosses and Lewandowski heads well wide.
31 min: Now Son flashes one wide of the near post. He’s really buzzing tonight. Bayern’s defence is not having a good one here and Neuer sensibly goes long from the goal kick.
30 min: This is much more like the tempo we associate with this Tottenham team, I must say.
28 min: Tottenham have a free-kick 25 yards out and a little to the left of centre. Kane is over it ... and a yard over the bar, too.
26 min: “Is there currently a more likeable player than Son?” queries Speakeasy Ray. “He’s not at a Zola level in that sense but I also don’t know a single footy fan that doesn’t rate him or enjoy watching him.”
Spurs might have said “Ndombele” if he’d scored while I was pasting that. Found 15 yards out by Aurier, he has a clear shot at goal but allows Neuer to shovel it wide. Spurs ought to be ahead!
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25 min: Gnabry is booked for shamelessly tugging Winks back in midfield after losing possession to him.
22 min: Aurier drills against Coman for a corner – not a penalty, as some of the crowd request, but it’s dealt with.
21 min: Corner kick for Bayern, now, which leads to another. Surely there are more goals in this one. Coutinho shoots straight at Lloris in the aftermath of the second.
19 min: Spurs win a corner after more fine work from Ndombele. This has been non-stop so far. They try a low one but Pavard clears towards Son, who tests Neuer with a 25-yard curler that the keeper clutches. It was probably going wide.
18 min: Kane is denied by Alaba! Son plays it over the top and Neuer is in no man’s land. Kane nicks it around him but, at an angle and on his wrong foot, he doesn’t get enough on his shot towards a vacant net and Alaba can desperately scoop it away!
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Goal! Spurs 1-1 Bayern (Kimmich 15)
What a start and what a hit! A Bayern skirmish is only half-cleared and Kimmich can take possession 25 yards out. He has too much time to work the ball onto his right foot and lashes a tremendous equaliser into the bottom corner. No sooner were Bayern behind than they’re level!
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15 min: Chances at both ends, then, but Spurs have made theirs count. Bayern paid, as so many sides so, for trying to play from deep inside their own area in the face of a lively press. But then ...
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Goal! Spurs 1-0 Bayern (Son 12)
Tolisso gives the ball away when trying to play from the back and Sissoko, seizing possession, calmly plays in Son – this time on the right of the box. This time he makes no mistake, slamming it across Neuer, and he scores from his third chance of this still-young game!
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@NickAmes82 Who I'm particularly watching tonight is Delli Ali. Are we sure he's good? Or is he another Gazza wannabe when he wants to be? (see: Wislhere, Barkley, Lallana etc etc etc)
— Hubert O'Hearn (@BTBReviews) October 1, 2019
Views? I think Alli is really, really good.
10 min: Alaba is stricken after Aurier jumps in *very* late on him. Let’s say he was trying to hurdle a tackle; otherwise that looked very bad indeed, like a kind of double stamp. Immense clumsiness after anything else, I think, and luckily Alaba is OK. And Spurs are then nearly very OK as Ndombele finds Son beautifully *again*, but with Kane waiting he allows Neuer to gather a cross-shot from a great position.
8 min: Maybe that’s settled Spurs down a touch. They’re now spraying the ball about the giving each other a few touches.
6 min: Bayern are keeping the ball quite well and looking to beat Spurs’ press when possible. But now Neuer is called into action! Ndombele slides Son through beautifully in the left of the area and the Korean has scored these before ... but not this time, as Neuer saves with his legs. One chance apiece!
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4 min: Now Coutinho is sent down the right by Pavard and Alderweireld has to hack away his ball towards a poised Lewandowski.
3 min: Big early chance for Bayern, that was. Vital it didn’t go in from a Spurs confidence point of view.
2 min: Spurs pressing Bayern pretty hard early on, disrupting their efforts to play from the back. This is exactly the kind of thing they need to recapture. But then Bayern do get out and Gnabry is played through the middle for a real chance ... saved by Lloris as he blasts towards goal from 18 yards!
Peeeep! Off we go!
They are underway!
It is a *proper* European atmosphere in a wet, drenched, snarling north London today. They’re up for this!
Real did indeed draw. And, in Man City’s group, Shakhtar won late on at Atalanta. Meanwhile we have a light show at Spurs, and two teams lining up in the tunnel ...
“I fancy Spurs to do good tonight.” writes Dave Branton. “Poch has named a pretty strong team to start and they started to show some of the last few seasons brilliance and resilience (what’s that, rapping or something?) against Southampton on Saturday. Come on you Spurs!!”
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If you’d like more football than just this football, Barry Glendenning has Man City v Dinamo Zagreb just for *you*:
Elsewhere, Real Madrid have just come from two down to level it at 2-2 against Club Brugge at the Bernabeu. Still a poor result if it stands, but the Belgians are down to 10 for the final few minutes ...
Christian Eriksen is on the naughty step bench again as you’ll see. In the Bayern side Serge Gnabry is back in London – he was a youngster at Arsenal, you’ll recall, before going on to bigger things.
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@NickAmes82 who else is happy to see Dele back? To watch him live is to appreciate his class.
— Tim Wallwork (@TimPCW) October 1, 2019
Yes, Alli starts and this is exactly the kind of game you’d fancy him to pop up with something in ...
We’ll dig into the nitty gritty shortly – in the meantime, help yourself to the Bayern latest with this from Ben Fisher:
Team news
Tottenham Hotspur: Lloris, Aurier, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Rose, Winks, Sissoko, Ndombele, Alli, Kane, Son. Subs: Sanchez, Lamela, Dier, Gazzaniga, Eriksen, Lucas Moura, Davies.
Bayern Munich: Neuer, Pavard, Boateng, Sule, Alaba, Kimmich, Tolisso, Gnabry, Coutinho, Coman, Lewandowski. Subs: Thiago, Javi Martinez, Cuisance, Perisic, Davies, Muller, Ulreich.
Referee: Clement Turpin
Hello
And what a tie this is! So much to like about this one – and so many strands of narrative too!
Can Spurs, on such a downer in the last few weeks, build on Saturday’s win over Southampton by securing the kind of European result that has been their preserve of late? It’s this kind of night that can really kick start a season, or at least set the fires alight once again. Mauricio Pochettino hasn’t become a bad manager overnight; quite the contrary. Nor have Spurs become a bad side. And Bayern ... Bayern are surely there to be defeated, and in so doing banishing many of these early doubts.
They’re going along nicely at the moment mind you, topping the Bundesliga as of the weekend. It’s a slightly fresher squad than the one that laboured to defeat against Liverpool last season, with Philippe Coutinho among those firmly involved, so you’d expect a little more zip about them here. What Spurs really don’t want is the threat of the kind of salvage operation they had to perform in last season’s group stage, much as that did not really harm them eventually. They really shouldn’t have dropped points against Olympiakos last time out; they could to with at least a draw here against opponents who won routinely enough against Red Star Belgrade.
Tonight promises to be anything but routine! Stay close, and send me your emails and tweets!
