Summary
This game was over by the 38th minute, when Eric Lamela swept in his third goal, but Monaco were on the ropes long before that. They looked cumbersome at the back, their full-backs were pushed far too forward, their midfield lacked bite and gave the ball away too many times in key areas, which lead directly to two of the four goals. Tottenham never had to get out of second gear, but Pochettino will be pleased: Onomah made his first start for the Spurs, Carroll got his first goal, and Lamela continued his excellent form in the Europa League: I make that six goals in five games this season. He’s beginning to show a good level of consistency in all competitions, but obviously thrives best when the game is more tactical in Europe, rather than the pinball nature of the Premier League.
Thanks for reading and for your emails and tweets. I’m off for another walnut. Here’s some final thoughts from MisterKevin.
@michaelbutler18 All this angst from the EPL teams about the Europa League smacks of a fear that maybe they're just not good enough for it.
— MisterKevin (@MrKAK27) December 10, 2015
@michaelbutler18 No other country whines this much about Thursday Night football.
— MisterKevin (@MrKAK27) December 10, 2015
Bye!
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Full-time: Tottenham 4-1 Monaco
Tottenham top Group J. Anderlecht are second. Monaco are out. Qarabag are bottom.
I wonder how long Moutinho will hang about at Monaco. He’s simply too good to hang about at that level, although I’m sure he’s being amply compensated for his troubles.
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90 min: Two minutes added on here. The Monaco fans are still in good voice, swinging their scarves around.
89 min: Monaco are tiring and the game is opening up for the fresh legs of Alli and co. The substitute has time to turn in the centre circle and plays a nice through ball to Son, but it’s juuuuuuuust too strong for the forward and Subasic is able to come out and clear.
87 min: The game is cantering to a close. The Spurs fans have started cheering every pass, of which there are many. Snack update: I have just cracked my first ever walnut, someone from the subs desk has just given me one. I mean I’ve eaten them before, I never knew how big they were uncracked. It’s reassuring to know that they are about the same size of a Walnut Whip.
84 min: Hello from Istanbul!”, writes Philip West. “I think that what we all need is for the other teams in Europe – maybe 8192 of them – to play a purely knockout competition with no seeding over 28 weeks (let’s say on Fridays just to be extreme) with games over two legs. We could call it “The Euromarathon Cup” and the winners would get automatic entry into a CL group similar to Eurovase. If Uefa suits are reading this then I claim 2% intellectual property rights.”
Fiver-esque cynicism there. I like it.
82 min: Bit of a naughty challenge from Alli on Mbappe. The England international is lucky not to see yellow there.
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80 min: Bit of an update on Dier, by the way. He’s back in the stands and looking like he’s not too upset about anything, laughing and joking with his team-mates. Apparently when he walked off, he told Pochettino, “I’m fine gaffer, I’m fine.”
79 min: Just what Monaco want to see: Dele Alli. He’s on for Clinton.
GOAL! Tottenham 4-1 Monaco (Carroll 77)
Carroll’s first ever Tottenham goal! He’s only had to wait five years. I could go on about the terrible Monaco defending, About Dirar’s poor clearance after Clinton’s shot, about how Toulalan and Elderson got in each other’s way, about Subasic’s woeful positioning. But I won’t. Tom Carroll wins the ball in Monaco’s penalty box, waltzes to the byline and squeezes the ball under the goalkeeper from an impossible angle. Game. Set. Match.
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73 min: This is getting silly. Monaco again commit far too many forward at the corner, and although Wallace squanders a good chance, they are caught short at the back. Clinton breaks at lightning pace away and suddenly he’s one-on-one with the creaky Toulalan. As Clinton kicks and rushes beyond the grey-haired veteran, Toulalan commits one of the most cynical fouls you are likely to see all season. He didn’t even pretend like he was going for the ball. Yellow card, Toulalan is a picture of innocence with his hands on his hips. He couldn’t look more French. Wallace is also booked for dissent.
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70 min: Tottenham are showing a degree of maturity here. They recognised that, for five minutes at least, they were coming under a bit of pressure. So they’ve simply settled into a nice period of possession, just to calm everything down a bit.
67 min: “What about a new 3rd tier competition for 4th place Champions League teams and 3rd placed Europa League teams. Too much?” asks Matthew Drake.
Yep, nobody wants to compete for the Plate Plate. London Live might show it on TV, though.
64 min: More changes: Diarra on, Bernardo Silva off for Monaco. Diarra is a defender, Silva was an attacking midfielder. Not sure what part of gung-ho Leonardo Jardim fails to understand here. Surely they’ve just got to go for it?
62 min: Another chance for Monaco! Ohhhhh! It’s a golden one! Dirar has a simple header at the back post from a Monaco corner but he get’s it all wrong and it bounces just over.
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61 min: Tottenham are next to make a change: Chadli marking his return to injury, coming on for the hat-trick hero Lamela.
3 - Erik Lamela has scored the first hat-trick for an English club v Monaco since Tony Yeboah for Leeds in September 1995. Trois.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 10, 2015
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GOAL! Tottenham 3-1 Monaco (El Shaarawy 60)
The substitute Mbappe makes an instant impact! Monaco just Pochettinoed Tottenham, with the sub nicking the ball off Tripper. From there, El Shaarawy picks the ball up in space outside the area, gets his head up, and bends a delicious shot just inside Lloris’ far post. Great finish. Boy has still got skills.
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59 min: Monaco have made a change: Mbappe on, Traore off.
58 min: It might be too little, too late (S/O JoJo) but Monaco are showing signs of life. Lemar has made a difference since he came on.
56 min: Onomah so close to his first Tottenham goal! Trippier gets forward down this right-hand side and whips a low cross into Son’s feet. Again the South Korean has time to turn inside the penalty box and he slips in Onomah, who breaks the first tackle from Dirar and shoots, with Subasic just about to get a boot on it, with the ball rebounding behind.
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52 min: If I have to listen to Clive Allen try and say ‘Ligue 1’ one more time, I’m packing this in.
50 min: Tim Whelan has kindly dissected his email into bulletpoints to make life a little easier for everybody.
“In answer to your question this evening, I think the parachute from the Champions League is a bad idea because:
A) The teams already in the Europa League hate it
B) The teams from the Champions League who never wanted to be in the Europa League hate it
C) The fans of all clubs involved hate it
D) I hate it
E) Justin Bieber hates it
F) The Queen hates it
G) Dr Who hates it
H) The Duke of Earl hates it. And nothing can stop him.
I) and most importantly, Michel Platini likes it.”
48 min: Just as we’ve seen the best of Bentaleb, now we see the worst. This time, he tries to be too clever and has his pocket picked by Lemar, who drives towards goal and shoots wide when he might have played in a team-mate. Bentaleb is booked, he tried (unsuccessfully) to impede Lemar when he lost the ball.
46 min: Bentaleb gets the second half underway with a sublime bit of skill, lifting the ball over his marker with a Berbatov-esque touch.
Peeeep peeep! We’re underway again. Monaco have made a change: Lemar on for Moutinho, who took a knock at the end of the first half.
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Michael Aston has some more thoughts on Champions League teams dropping into the Europa League.
“The failing CL teams getting another shot at a CL spot and another trophy is ridiculous. just absurd and so unfair. It’s as if Uefa want to ensure their money teams get yet another chance to fill the coffers and trophy bank. Has to stop.”
Mats Anderson, meanwhile is still banging the drum.
“Unfair? Being unjustly treated? Protest Make a lot of noise. Demand justice. I’ll join the demo. Fight the power!”
Half-time entertainment: it’s Emmanuel Adebayor dancing. He doesn’t seem to be missing football too much. According to some reports, Spurs are still paying him £100,000-a-week. Which seems to be working out alright for him.
He’s also just dropped over £300,000 on a new Rolls-Royce …
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Half-time: Tottenham 3-0 Monaco
Phew. That Dier injury aside, a near-perfect half for Pochettino.
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45 min: One minute added on here. The break can’t come quickly enough for Monaco. Just put them out of their misery, please.
42 min: Dier is withdrawn for Bentaleb as a precaution. Sensible move, the game feels already won.
40 min: Another Monaco corner, another Tottenham counter-attack. They stream forward in numbers – it’s four on two – but both Son and Clinton choose the wrong pass and the move fizzles out.
38 min: Things are going from bad to worse for Monaco. Moutinho is down, clutching his knee, after a challenge from Wimmer. He looks in all sorts of bother.
GOAL! Tottenham 3-0 Monaco (Lamela 37)
Hat-trick for Lamela! Will Monaco not learn? Pasalic dawdles on the ball, Clinton gets a toe in and suddenly Tottenham are three on one. A simple, yet perfectly weighted, pass finds Lamela who bears down on goal and lashes the ball first-time into the right-hand corner of the net.
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35 min: Looks like Dier is going to stay on. What a trooper. Meanwhile Wallace is given a yellow card for dissent I think. He’ll miss the next Europa League match. Which doesn’t look like it’s going to be in the round-of-32. Anderlecht have just gone 2-1 up at home to Qarabag.
33 min: Dier is down. This is not good for Tottenham, he is a key player for them at the base of their midfield. That was quite a nasty challenge that went unpunished. Bentaleb is readying himself on the touchline.
31 min: More good work from Onomah earns Spurs a corner and from that, Alderweireld oh-so-nearly flicks a low centre past Subasic.
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30 min: Keith Richards is back! And we have a chess reference. What an evening this is turning out to be.
“It’s a bit like the irritating kid in a chess game who makes a blunder and then whines for “another go” when you’re about to take his queen. These clubs have lost their European place and that’s it - see you next year! Finance of course rears its ugly head: we’d better let the big clubs try again for CL (whether they like it or not). Was the idea of 3 Euro trophies (including the Cup-Winners’ Cup) so terrible?”
No, it wasn’t. I miss the Cup Winners’ Cup.
28 min: False alarm: Anderlecht have hit straight back to make it 1-1.
26 min: There is still hope for Monaco! Qarabag have taken the lead at Anderlecht! Dani Quintana with the goal there.
24 min: Chance for Monaco! Alderweireld fails to deal with a long diagonal, with the ball dropping into Spurs’ box. Wallace steals in but neither controls the ball or shoots. Instead it squirts back out to the edge of the box, and Bakayoko flashes a deflected drive just wide.
23 min: The way this is going, Tottenham could be four or five up by half-time.
22 min: Monaco finally gets themselves up the pitch for a corner, but this only serves to allow Tottenham to counter-attack. Onomah breaks one challenge and sets off, Clinton and Son combine on the edge, and Carroll swirls a curling shot just beyond the reaches of Subasic’s far post. Ooooh! Close.
20 min: Tottenham corner. It’s half-cleared by Pasalic, the highly-rated Croatian that is one of about 56,379 youngsters out on loan from Chelsea, but the ball comes down from the heavens onto Son’s right boot. This time he can only volley into the side netting.
18 min: Tottenham have the ball in the net again … but this time it is ruled offside. Monaco are all at sea, and have decided that with Toulalan at the back, it is a good idea to play a high line. Son is latches onto a Lamela pass beyond the 5mph defenders, before finishing nicely, but he was perhaps one yard off. The pass from Lamela should have come sooner.
GOAL! Tottenham 2-0 Monaco (Lamela 16)
An awful, awful mistake from Monaco’s goalkeeper, Danijel Subasic. Tottenham have played lots of pretty stuff in these opening minutes but this goal is route one: Son winning the flick from long hoof from the back. Lamela collects the ball, turns towards goal with absolutely no pressure on him whatsoever, and fizzes a low shot towards goal. It is seemingly harmless but Subasic lets it dip under his dive and the ball finds the corner.
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14 min: Tottenham are having a lot of fun out here at present. Carroll and Dier have the freedom of the middle of the pitch. After a slick one-touch move, Son blasts a shot a good 10-15 yards over the bar.
11 min: Sunday League cliché alert! Bakayoko has just been collared and sent to the technical area because he is still wearing a bracelet. Studs or moulds? Has anybody got any tape?
9 min: Onomah has looked lively in these first few minutes. He is playing wide on the right at present. He cuts inside Elderson but his square pass to Carroll is just behind the Englishman.
6 min: You have to feel for our Paul Doyle: we had a goal after 1min4secs and he had to endure 90 minutes of this from Liverpool. Standfirst spoiler:
- Researchers believe this may well have been the longest 90 minutes in history
4 min: Monaco are rocking. Tottenham’s high press twice leads Elderson and Wallace to boot the ball out of play in blind panic.
GOAL! Tottenham 1-0 Monaco (Lamela 2)
Well that didn’t take long. Tottenham score with their first attack! Tottenham win the ball high up the pitch after a loose pass from Bakayoko and Davies overlaps Clinton to get to the byline, before cutting the ball back to Lamela, who is completely unmarked on the edge of the six-yard box. The Argentinean neatly sweeps the ball into the far corner. Awful start from Monaco, they’ve got to win tonight, and now have it all to do.
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Peeeeeep peeeep! And we’re off!
The players are out. Tottenham in all-white, Monaco in a changed black number. Jérémy Toulalan – I can’t believe he is still just 32 years old – already looks like he is going to keel over. He’s Monaco’s captain tonight, and will play in central defence. Son will be licking his lips at that.
#TBT
Dele Alli's old MySpace profile picture!😂 pic.twitter.com/yhG7vemOLw
— DynamoBetting (@Dynamobetting) November 18, 2015
Alli starts on the Tottenham bench tonight.
TEAM NEWS: It's a first start for @Joshuaonomah10! The 18-year-old has made seven sub appearances to date. #COYS pic.twitter.com/IQfjwRtrN2
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) December 10, 2015
Josh is playing in the fluid front three (with Clinton and Lamela) behind Son tonight. I can’t claim to know much more than that about this young man I’m afraid. Any insights from you out there are more than welcome.
We’ve got two differing views on the question I posed earlier on whether it was unfair to parachute the third-placed Champions League teams into the Europa League round-of-32:
“The big games against the best teams are where the glory is.” emails Mats Anderson. “Hence every supporter and avery player should want the games against the Leverkusens and the Uniteds of the world. If you don’t relish the thought of meeting and (potentially) beating the best, play scrabble. For a club to be on a CL footing you must have : 1) A winning ethos, you must strive to win every match and every tournament, 2) Realization that winning something is better than winning nothing, 3) A squad that can handle 2 games a week, every week, 4) Insight/knowledge that glory is the point of everything, hence merely winning is not enough, winning with style is.”
Keith Richards, meanwhile, simply states: “It’s unfair.”
Indeed, at the hoarding at White Hart Lane remind us, ‘THE GAME IS ABOUT GLORY.’ I’m sure that Tottenham would probably prefer that glory to come in the form of a tangible bit of silverware though, rather than beating a Champions League team in the quarter-finals and then going out to another in the semi-finals. But hey, OPINIONS.
The last, and only time, these clubs have met was back in October, when Stephan El Shaarawy cancelled out Eric Lamela’s opener in a 1-1 draw.
The biggest connection between the two clubs, though, remains Glenn Hoddle, who left Spurs for Monaco in 1987, going on to win the Ligue 1 title under Arsene Wenger in his first season, alongside George Weah and Mark Hateley.
That chip on 43 seconds. Woof!
“It was a great place to go and live, the training ground was magnificent, at the top of the mountain,” Hoddle says in tonight’s match programme. “I’d spent many years at Tottenham and the training was completely different. It was a great experience and I needed to do that as a player.”
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Speaking of the trophy, here it is. I think it might be my favourite in Europe, you know. There’s something very … solid about it. I bet it makes a lovely sound if you knock it, or drop it.
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Of course, this is the last match before the third-placed Champions League teams – Shakhtar Donestk, Manchester United, Galatasaray, Sevilla, Bayer Leverkusen, Olympiakos, Porto, Valencia – parachute into the round-of-32 along with our Europa League group winners and runners up.
Do you think this improves the competition or is a tad unfair on the teams that have fought tooth and nail to get to the knock-out stages? Answers please to michael.butler@theguardian.com or via @MichaelButler18
I can’t imagine there are a whole lot of Spurs (or Monaco) supporters out there that would relish the chance of meeting any of the above instead of say, Rapid Vienna.
Of course, we might as well just give the trophy to Sevilla now. They are now aiming to win their third consecutive Europa League.
The teams!
Tottenham 4-2-3-1: Lloris (c), Trippier, Alderweireld, Wimmer, Davies; Carroll, Dier; Clinton, Onomah, Lamela; Son
Subs: Vorm, Carter-Vickers, Alli, Bentaleb, Chadli, Townsend, Kane
#THFC team: Lloris (c), Trippier, Alderweireld, Wimmer, Davies; Carroll, Dier; Clinton, Onomah, Lamela; Son #COYS pic.twitter.com/D9yCT2w28x
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) December 10, 2015
-60' : Our started XI ! #TOTASM pic.twitter.com/4GVSSqeOvU
— AS Monaco EN (@AS_Monaco_EN) December 10, 2015
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Preamble
Welcome to Spursday night football. The hottest football ticket in north London coming at you like a train. Not really. Tottenham have already qualified for the round-of-32 and need one point from their final game tonight to rubber-stamp their place at the top of their group. That said, it’s a tad more spicy for Monaco, who have to win at the Lane tonight and hope Anderlecht, currently in second, slip up at home to Carrier Bag Qarabag.
Tottenham are riding a wave right now. Unbeaten in eight matches with a young, hungry team full of British players, they are most definitely in the mix for Champions League football. Perhaps that will be a top-four finish, perhaps that will be winning the Europa League.
Make no mistake, with that golden carrot now attached to the Europa League trophy, the competition has been given a new lease of life. Make no mistake, it’s an excellent competition, full of exciting teams on the fringes for people to enjoy and explore. It’s a hipster’s paradise, the Hackney or Williamsburg of European football.
For Pochettino, the issue remains whether to give some of his stars a well-earned rest (Harry Kane has played in all of Tottenham’s 21 fixtures this season) or keep their hard-earned momentum up and running. Perhaps he can do both. They’re only playing Newcastle on Sunday anyway. The Argentinian stressed in his pre-match presser that he wouldn’t ring the changes “too much” but it would not be a surprise to see Kevin Wimmer, Tom Carroll or Clinton Njié get some game-time tonight.
For Monaco, they will be going all out. Special attention will be on their talisman João Moutinho, as well as Stephan El Shaarawy, who has yet to really get going since his move from Milan in the summer. 6ft8in giant Lacina Traoré, formerly of Everton, should give Spurs’ defence plenty to think about.
Kick off: 8.05pm GMT, 9.05pm in the principality.
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