And with that, I’m off. Here’s David Hytner’s match report from Wembley. Bye!
Spurs played sporadically reasonably. Kane should have equalised in the second half, but there were few chances. In the first 10 minutes they attacked down the right three times, but then they gave up on enterprising wing-play and got stuck in a rut in the middle of the pitch. The defending for both Monaco goals was disappointing at best, though they were well taken. Monaco lost 4-1 at White Hart Lane in the Europa League last December, but this was a significantly slicker performance.
The other game in this group tonight ended Leverkusen 2-2 CSKA Moscow, with the home side taking a two-goal lead in the first 15 minutes and then losing it again before half-time.
A couple of disappointed Spurs players talk to BTSport. Firstly, Toby ALderweireld:
We scored and created some kind of momentum. In the second half we were much better, had chances to win the game but the goal wouldn’t come. We put a lot of energy into it, but we couldn’t force anything. For us now we have to get a good result away from home, and then three points at home.
And then Dele Alli:
I thought we started poorly today and they punished us for it. But I think we did enough to win the game today, we just didn’t take the chances. They’re a great team and they’re hard to play against. But we dominated the game in the second half, we’ve done what we needed to do, but we just couldn’t score. We just need to pick ourselves up now and make sure we win the next game.
Final score: Tottenham 1-2 Monaco
90+4 mins: And that’s it! Tottenham bring 85,000 people to Wembley, but not their A-game, and are beaten.
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90+4 mins: Monaco convert that free kick into a throw-in, 40 seconds later.
90+3 mins: With 30 seconds to play, Alderweireld commits a foul on the halfway line, and that should be that.
90+1 mins: Vertonghen wins the header, but finds neither power nor the target.
90+1 mins: We’re in stoppage time, and there’ll be about three minutes of it. It’s do or die time for Spurs, and they start it with another corner.
87 mins: Space opens up behind Monaco’s defence, and Sissoko sprints into it, but Janssen’s pass is overhit, and Subasic gets there first. As Jenas points out on co-commentary, even a half-decent pass would have given the Frenchman a great goalscoring chance then.
86 mins: Spurs have a 10-0 lead on corners, and a 64.9%-35.1% possession advantage. Still, this has been a fine away performance from Monaco, and several of their players – Sidibé and Lemar in particular – have had excellent games.
84 mins: Lemar goes on another lithe run down the right, and when Spurs clear his cross Alli gives it right away again. They then hog the ball for a while, until Andrea Raggi attempts an over-ambitious pass and fluffs it.
83 mins: There is no momentum in this game at the moment. It’s bitty and disjointed.
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81 mins: Substitutions for both teams: Tottenham bring Moussa Sissoko on for Dier, and Monaco bring Valère Germain on for Falcao, who still does not appear to be injured, but you can’t be sure.
81 mins: Sidibé goes on a thrilling run down the left, tricking and sprinting past Walker, but his cross is deflected straight to Lloris. Still, fine running.
79 mins: Spurs fashion a great chance! And Kane fluffs it! Janssen does the running, huffing and puffing down the right, spinning past Jemerson and passing inside to Kane, who works the ball onto his left foot, pulls back his leg and, with the goal gaping, thumps the ball straight at Subasic.
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77 mins: Walker’s cross is headed out to Alli at the edge of the area, but his shot is curly and pretty but weak and easily saved.
74 mins: Lemar is given the ball in the right-hand corner of the pitch, and dances around the perimeter of the box until he’s within left-foot-shooting distance of goal, whereupon he has a shot with his left foot. It’s blocked, loops into the air, and lands in Lloris’s arms.
72 mins: Dele Alli goes on a lovely run down the left. He doesn’t do much with the ball, but he swerves his body this way and that, flummoxing all defenders who dare to cross his patch, before randomly and for no obvious reason forgetting to stop the ball rolling gently out of play.
71 mins: A substitution for Spurs, who take off Lamela and bring on Vincent Janssen.
68 mins: Alderweireld brings the ball out of defence, then takes a heavy touch and gives it away for little reason. Monaco try to play in Bernardo Silva, but the pass is overhit and it goes out of play. It has, over the last few minutes, become that kind of game.
65 mins: A lengthy period in which Spurs dominated and didn’t win any corners ends eventually with an intriguing Monaco semi-break in which no one ever seems to have the ball under control but they still manage to work it among themselves for a while. Or at least until they get into the Spurs half, when they lose it.
61 mins: This one is sent into the mixer, and then headed out of it again.
61 mins: This is played short, worked around a bit, and then Eriksen is tackled by Falcao, who still isn’t injured. Another corner.
60 mins: From this one Dembélé’s low shot is deflected wide. Another cross.
60 mins: Nothing comes of the corner, and the ball goes back to the halfway line, then Spurs come forward again, and win another corner.
58 mins: Another Spurs corner. “Can someone explain why a yellow card foul in the box isn’t a PK if the corner hasn’t been taken yet? And the logic behind that?” asks Evan Haas. If the ball isn’t in play, you can’t concede a penalty. Or a free kick. Or anything else. But you can still get yourself booked or indeed sent off.
58 mins: Tottenham have a bit of wind in their sails now, and are starting to repeatedly rap on the Monaco door. Traditionally, this is when they concede two goals.
55 mins: As Spurs prepare to take the corner, Fabinho and Alli tussle, and the Englishman falls over. The referee waves a card. For a while there’s a suspicion that he had also given a penalty, and Monaco players look utterly horrified, though given that the corner hadn’t been taken at the time that was never really an option.
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54 mins: Kane is played in down ye olde inside right channel, cuts onto his left foot, ignores a couple of team-mates in the middle, and shoots into the legs of the diving, blocking Jemerson.
53 mins: The official attendance is in. And it’s quite big.
Tonight's attendance breaks three records - thank you for your incredible support. #COYS #SpursAtWembley pic.twitter.com/MPYVLKMzWP
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) September 14, 2016
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51 mins: Eriksen hits the wall.
51 mins: Eriksen and Lamela stand over the ball, looking threatening. It’s about 25 yards out.
50 mins: All is brought down by Glik, who is booked and proceeds to give the referee a mouthful of vitriol. You wouldn’t get away with that in the Premier League, son.
49 mins: That 47th-minute Eriksen cross followed a lovely bit of nutmeggery from Dele Alli.
49 mins: Ooooh! Alli slams a 20-yard shot that was dipping below the bar before Subasic tips it over!
48 mins: Ooh! Eriksen crosses from the left and Kane is straining his neck muscles before Jemerson flicks it to safety.
47 mins: Monaco start brightly, but after several smart passes Sidibé’s cross from the left is emphatically overhit.
Peeeeeeeep!
46 mins: They’re off! Again!
A half-time substitution for Spurs: Mousa Dembélé is coming on, and Son Heung-Min is off.
That was a fun half of football, though Tottenham fans might not agree. Given the scoreline, more drama is surely guaranteed in half two.
Good half that. Every detail easily explainable by Wembley, the size of the pitch, foreigners being unfairly inspired etc etc
— Barney Ronay (@barneyronay) September 14, 2016
Half time: Tottenham 1-2 Monaco
The whistle blows, the crowd roars, and that atmosphere at the break has been totally changed by that late Spurs goal.
45+3 mins: Spurs have the wind in their sails now. Lamela gets forward, but his cross is to nobody very much. Then he crosses again, with his left foot this time, and Alli flings a boot at the ball and only just misses!
45+2 mins: This came in before the Tottenham goal, but the answer’s still the same.
@Simon_Burnton Those photos have a whiff of hubris about them, don't they?
— Gary Naylor (@garynaylor999) September 14, 2016
45+1 mins: There will be about three minutes of stoppage time.
GOAL! Tottenham 1-2 Monaco (Alderweireld, 45 mins)
And Lamela’s corner is headed in by Toby Alderweireld! He runs to the near post, outjumps Glik, and thumps the ball goalwards!
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45 mins: Kane wins a corner on the right, which is good a moment as his side have had for a while.
42 mins: There’s a slightly mournful chorus of When the Spurs Go Marching In echoing around Wembley at the moment. Spurs started well, but for the last 20 minutes or so they’ve been very flat.
38 mins: Spurs fans were asked to wear white to the match tonight, to match the flag their defence would be waving.
37 mins: Dier gives the ball away, and Falcao sets off on a run towards the Spurs area that ends with Alderweireld getting his body in front of the ball, and then booting it out of play.
35 mins: Kane exhibits a textbook innocentface after sliding in late on Fabinho and getting booked.
34 mins: Falcao just touched the ball. He then looked over his shoulder, saw Alderweireld bearing down on him, and paused to win a free kick. He remains uninjured.
GOAL! Tottenham 0-2 Monaco (Lemar, 31 mins)
Oh. Sidibé crosses from the left, Lemar’s header hits Vertonghen in the back and he latches onto the rebound and crashes a left-foot volley into the roof of the net.
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30 mins: “FYI,” writes W of the pitch size issue, “the difference in area is over 12%”
29 mins: The ball is played in front of Kane by Alli, but a sliding Glik gets there first by a matter of inches.
26 mins: Walker, picked out by Eriksen’s lovely lofted pass, crosses nicely, but it’s headed clearish and when it’s worked back to Walker there must be some weird spinny stuff going on because the ball bounces weirdly and confuses him.
23 mins: The pitch actually isn’t very much bigger than the one Spurs are used to – 109m x 69m to White Hart Lane’s 100m x 67m. But there is a look of spaciousness about it. There’s empty grass all over the place.
19 mins: A Spurs attack breaks down on the edge of the area and the ball is played to Bernardo Silva again. Off he races down the right flank and towards the area, and once he reaches its edge he collapses under the very slightest contact from Alli. The referee is not impressed.
18 mins: Lamela gets the ball on the edge of the area and shoots low and hard, but Subasic saves. Lamela has been visibly wound up by his role in the goal.
17 mins: Spurs had started the game well, moving the ball confidently and repeatedly finding space down the right. But that was an ugly goal to concede, with Lamela shouldering much of the blame but Vertonghen volunteering for a dose of his own.
GOAL! Tottenham 0-1 Monaco (Bernardo Silva, 16 mins)
Lamela’s pass in midfield is blocked and rebounds to Bernardo Silva, who runs towards the area, with Vertonghen backtracking wildly, reaches the area, and then curls a left-footed shot into the far corner! That has come from nowhere.
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15 mins: Another chance for Spurs! Kane takes the ball past Jemerson and cuts back to Son, who’s crowded out, the ball rolls to Alli, and his shot is deflected to Subasic. The perfect cross from Kane would have created an unmissable chance.
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11 mins: Now Monaco have a player writhing around on the floor. It’s Tiémoué Bakayoko, who appears to have felt a knee – or other body part – in the back as he competed with two other players for a high ball. This one doesn’t appear to be nigh-concluding.
10 mins: And Son really should have scored there. He was in all sorts of space when the ball reached him, but probably needed to aim high towards the near post, rather than low towards the far.
9 min: Goalline clearance! Well, give or take a yard or two! Kane is played into space down the right, and he crosses to Son, on the other side of the penalty area, who controls and shoots past Subasic, but a defender’s on hand to hack clear.
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8 mins: Monaco win a free kick on the right touchline, which Moutinho eventually sends into the area. It’s also cleared.
5 mins: Thomas Lemar has now replaced Dirar.
4 mins: It looks like Nabil Dirar’s night is already over, the midfielder now walking slowly off the pitch. He started running upfield after that corner was cleared and then stopped and turned around, as if he thought someone had kicked him. There was nobody anywhere near, his body had just hurt itself.
3 mins: Kane lays the ball off for Walker. The ball is way in front of the full-back, much closer to two Monaco players, but Walker puts on the afterburners, reaches it first and wins a corner. Which is cleared.
Peeeeeeeep!
1 min: They’re off! Falcao has already kicked the ball, and didn’t get injured. So, promising signs.
“For the neutral, it’s a crying shame Falcao has regressed so much,” writes Matt Dony, “because five years or so ago, he was astonishingly good. He had it all, scored all types of goals. Then apparently forgot how. Those injuries decimated him in so many ways. Maybe someone should sit him in front of YouTube and remind him what he can actually do.” He does have two goals and an assist from two games this season, so maybe the good times are returning (he’s also missed six with injury, obviously).
The players are in the tunnel! This is about to happen, literally any minute. Well, four minutes, to be precise.
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Here’s a warm-up room. Total Tottenhamification.
This is the physio room at Wembley Stadium. I also find this astonishing. The place has been totally Tottenhamified.
Mauricio Pochettino has spoken!
We have a lot of options. We have a very strong squad. I can’t pick every player, only 11. But it’s very good for him [Son] to score twice last week, and when a player is in a good way, in a good performance, it is good to give him the option to play again.
I think it will be a fantastic opportunity to show how big is our club, Tottenham. It’s the biggest club in England and today, 90,000 fans, it will be a fantastic time to play with them.
We are very focused on the game, on trying to give our best and then try to enjoy. It’s a game to enjoy. Today it’s normal like when we play at White Hart Lane. We arrive three and a half hour before, we have pre-match in the stadium. It’s normal. It’s different to the Premier League but we try to do the same.
“I know the attendance thing is overblown, and Spurs could very well trot out and dirty their undergarments in front of 80,000 of the faithful, but it’s hard not to feel a buzz – even at a grade level meeting in the States – about such a crowd in such a stadium cheering Tottenham on,” thrills Evan Haas. It’s a glorious, sunny evening in London, and there’s a frisson of novelty about the experience, but then Arsenal were also excited before they discovered that Wembley made them play like idiots.
@Simon_Burnton that Harry Kane interview is a great example why footballers should never give interviews
— Andy Hamilton (@Hamiltona74) September 14, 2016
I interviewed a footballer today. You know someone isn’t planning on opening his soul in an in-depth, far-reaching conversation when before he talks to you he turns on his car engine to get the air conditioning running.
Jermaine Jenas reports from pitchside on the state of the turf. “It’s a bit patchy in places. Not as you’d expect it,” he says. “I think they had a concert here at the weekend.” So if the result isn’t to your pleasing tonight, blame Billy Joel. He may not have started the fire, but he did mess up the pitch.
Harry Kane continues:
We’ve got to be careful with their threats but go out there with the same confidence we did last year. For me Wembley’s an iconic stadium. We’ve got a good core of England players, so that should suit us, that quite a few players will be used to their surroundings.
Rio Ferdinand interviews Harry Kane. “What are you looking forward to most?” he asks. “That ball?” “Yeah, the ball.” concurs Kane. I am genuinely astonished by this.
The shock team news tonight is that Radamel Falcao isn’t injured, and thus starts in attack for Monaco. Tottenham make one change, with Victor Wanyama dropping to the bench and Erik Lamela starting in his stead.
Here’s the official team sheet:
Hello world!
So, this is officially the most exciting game in the history of English club football! If excitement is measured exclusively by the number of paying spectators! There’ll be something like 90,000 people at Wembley tonight, and these are the players they’ll be cheering on:
#THFC team: Lloris (C); Walker, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Davies; Dier, Alli; Lamela, Eriksen, Son; Kane. #COYS pic.twitter.com/dfReBp4e2o
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) September 14, 2016
H-1 : la compo !!! @falcao fait son retour dans le XI !#TOTASM #UCL pic.twitter.com/9iNDlrDLaq
— AS MONACO 🇮🇩 (@AS_Monaco) September 14, 2016
Tottenham team announced
Tottenham Hotspur: Lloris; Walker, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Davies; Dier, Alli; Lamela, Eriksen, Son; Kane.
Subs: Vorm, Trippier, Carter-Vickers, Wanyama, Dembélé, Sissoko, Janssen.
#THFC team: Lloris (C); Walker, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Davies; Dier, Alli; Lamela, Eriksen, Son; Kane. #COYS pic.twitter.com/dfReBp4e2o
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) September 14, 2016
Hello. Simon will be here shortly for Tottenham’s first Champions League match at Wembley. Here’s David Hytner’s preview:
Mauricio Pochettino inhabits a world in which the finest of margins can make the difference. And so, in the countdown to Tottenham’s big night, he has trained on two pitches that replicate the 105m x 69m dimensions of the national stadium. They have alternated between them, Pochettino said, in order to look after the grass.
“Wembley is a little bit bigger and this can help the teams that play along the grass and keep possession,” Pochettino said. “Teams that build from the back, like us, have more space, more possibility to play and it’s more difficult for the opponent to press you. We believe in the way we play and this is a good chance to play on a big pitch. We need to adapt our game.”
Pochettino said his squad’s routine would not change; they will arrive at the stadium three-and-a-half hours before the kick-off and there will be a “very nice room” for the team meeting. The traffic problems around the ground may not be as severe as those at White Hart Lane, he added with a smile.
The excitement is mounting. “We trained today with the Champions League balls and the bibs with the Champions League on, and it’s difficult to describe the feeling,” Pochettino said.
The club is making every effort to smooth the transition; to create a home from home while White Hart Lane is deemed to fall foul of Uefa’s regulations because of building work.
The supporters have been urged to dress in all-white, while the Wembley arch will be lit in lily white and Tottenham Ladies players will hand out flags to youngsters in the upper tier. Happily for lovers of overblown pre-match montages, the montage from White Hart Lane will play on the giant screens. On a practical note, fans have been advised to get there early.
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