Mourinho apologises
Elsewhere in the Champions League
Mourinho on what this win means: “We have qualified for the next round, that is the important thing for all of us at the club and the fans,” he says. “It was hard, they are a good team, very well organised and they attacked our self esteem and self confidence. It was a tough time, more than the changes or the tactical talk, I told them to keep calm, keep confident and believe in ourselves.”
He also goes on to praise the ballboy who played a decisive role in Harry Kane’s first goal, saying that he loves ballboys who can read the game properly. “I was a brilliant ballboy,” he says. Never change, Jose.
Jose Mourinho speaks: “The first thing I want to say is to do publicly say what I did in the dressing-room,” he tells Des Kelly. “I want to apologise to Eric Dier. I did it [substituted him for Christian Eriksen after 29 minutes] for the team ... it was not for Eric Dier playing badly. I did it for the team. I needed a second man with Dele Alli to come into the pockets and into the spaces.I have apologised to him and he understands that.”
He goes on to say that he could have taken Winks off instead and even thought about moving Dier back into the heart of defence and taken off Sanchez or Alderweireld.
1 - Tottenham's 4-2 win vs Olympiakos was the first time ever a team managed by José Mourinho had come from two goals down to win in a Champions League game – he had lost the previous 13 games he’d been 2+ goals behind in. Spirit. pic.twitter.com/rkRK68qe5W
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) November 26, 2019
Harry Kane breaks a record: Harry Kane has beaten a record previously held by Alessandro del Piero to become the quickest player to score 20 Champions League goals. It seems quite a random milestone, but BT Sport are making a big deal out of it.
“Not a bad player to beat,” says Harry to Des Kelly, before returning to his Big Book Of Banal Post Match Platitudes. “It was about qualifying, no matter how we did it but we had to win and we did that. We can enjoy it and try and deep the momentum for Saturday.”
Match report: Tottenham Hotspur 4-2 Olympiakos
David Hytner was at White Hart Lane to see Jose Mourinho’s first home debut and here’s how he saw an entertaining game unfold.
Harry Kane speaks: “It was a disappointing start,” says Harry Kane to BT Sport. “We didn’t come out with any energy , they scored twice and we were into an uphill battle. Dele done well to get that goal just before half-time and then we had the momentum.”
Asked about Jose Mourinho’s half-time address, he says the dressing-room was calm. “He said we needed to be calm,” he says. “Calmer on the ball, we didn’t have to rush it. We went out there with a bit more freedom and that helped.”
Asked about Jose’s decision to replace Eric Dier so early in the game, Dele Alli looks a little uncomfortable. “He could have taken off any of us, to be honest,” he says. “I was sure it was going to be me because I thought I was dreadful in the first 20 minutes.”
Elsewhere in Group B: Bayern Munich have beaten Red Star 6-0 and remain top of Group B.
And in the BT Sport studio: Peter Crouch has been put out of his misery and removed from the punditry panel, as he was too hoarse to speak in anything more coherent than a high-pitched croak. It’s a shame really, as it was very entertaining watching him suffer.
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Full time: Tottenham 4-2 Olympiakos
Peep! Peep! Peeeeeeep! Tottenham advance to the knockout stages of the Champions League with a game to spare. They won quite comfortably in the end, but made life difficult for themselves in the first half.
Two down moments before the half-time whistle, Dele Alli capitalised on a blunder by Yassine Meriah to pull a goal back, before Harry Kane scored either side of Serge Aurier’s fine strike to earn Tottenham their spot in the last 16.
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90+2 min: The players of Olympiakos have made a massive contribution to a very entertaining game tonight, but they have finally accepted their fate. They won’t be going to the knockout stages, but can still qualify for the Europa League with a win over Red Star in their next game.
90 min: The game enters the final minute of normal time and the shock felt by Tottenham fans in the first half has been replaced by jubilation. Elsewhewre in Group B, Bayern lead Red Star 5-0 in the closing stages of their game. Robert Lewandowski has scored four of their goals and missed a penalty, I’m told.
87 min: Valbuena gets in behind Aurier down the left flank and wins a corner. His ball into the penalty area is a little too high for Semedo to get his head on.
85 min: Olympiakos substitution: Miguel Guerrero on for Youssef El Arabi, who scored the first goal of the game.
82 min: Spurs substitution: Dele Alli goes off and enjoys a long walk around the pitch back to the bench with the crowd rising to applaud him. Tanguy Ndombele takes his place.
79 min: Some housekeeping as your humble reporter struggles to keep up: Daniel Podence was booked for that foul on Ali, who seems to have run off what looked a very painful injury. Podence has also been replaced by Lazar Randjelovic.
Andreas Bouchalakis has also made way for Mathieu Valbuena. And finally, Bayern are hockeying Red Star 5-0 elsewhere in this group, which means both they and Tottenham are going through to the knockout stages. Now you know everything ...
GOAL! Tottenham 4-2 Olympiakos (Kane 77)
Harry Kane record-breaker! Spurs win a free-kick wide on the left for a Podence foul on Dele Alli that left the Spurs man in a lot of pain. Christian Eriksen sends in the cross and it’s a beauty. Kane heads home to become the quickest player in history to score 20 Champions League goals.
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75 min: That was a sweet, sweet strike by Aurier, which you should try to get a look at it if you can. Alli danced and jinked his way through a thicket of bodies on the left side of the Olympiakos penalty area, before picking out Aurier with a cross. A perfectly timed strike from the Frenchman left Jose Sa with no chance. That stayed hit!
GOAL! Tottenham 3-2 Olympiakos (Aurier 73)
Tottenham lead! Serge Aurier scores with a wonderful strike on the half-volley from one corner of the six-yard box after excellent work by Dele Alli.
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71 min: Spurs continue to turn the screw and Olympiakos left-back Kostas Tsimikas is booked as he mistimes a tackle on Serge Aurier, who is sent tumbling off the pitch. He lands just in front of the technical area occupied by Jose Mourinho.
70 min: Eriksen takes the free -kick, leathering the ball as hard as he can towards the top corner. His rasper fizzes wide, but not by much.
68 min: Straight in front of goal, inches outside the Olympiakos penalty area, Tottenham win a free-kick after Andreas Bouchalakis brings down Dele Alli and is booked for his cynicism.
67 min: Harry Kane picks up a pass from Dele Alli and pulls the trigger in the Olympiakos penalty area. Meriah blocks well.
67 min: First Son and then Sissoko send low crosses into the Olympiakos penalty area, trying to pick out Kane. Meriah intercepts the first cross, Semedo the second.
Elsewhere in Group B: Bayern Munich are 3-0 up against Red Star. Barring a very unlikely comeback, a draw will see Spurs through to the knockout stages.
63 min: Harry Winks is penalised for climbing all over Mohamed Camara while leaping to contest a header. It seems another harsh decision - the Olympiakos midfielder was backing into him and Winks had eyes only for the ball.
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62 min: Alderweireld is booked for a fairly innocuous “challenge” on El Arabi, who made a great show of going to ground after being caught by the defender’s arm.
60 min: Tottenham substitution: Moussa Sissoko on for Lucas Moura. He’s been one of Tottenham’s better players tonight, particularly in the last 15 minutes.
59 min: Masouras takes the corner, arrowing the ball towards the far post. Gazzaniga comes to claim, but doesn’t catch it cleanly. It doesn’t matter, he was impeded and is awarded a free-kick.
57 min: Having been so poor in the first half, Tottenham have the momentum now but Olympiakos heads don’t seem to have dropped. Daniel Podence sends a cross into the penalty area from the right, but Alderweireld hacks clear. Olympiakos continue to apply the pressure, forcing Serge Aurier to concede a corner.
55 min: Ha-ha! Replays show that straight after Harry Kane scored that equaliser, Jose Mourinho celebrated by marching down the touchline to high five and hug the ball-boy who was so fast to get a ball into the hands of Serge Aurier for the throw-in that was instrumental in leading to the goal.
52 min: Kane spanked that equaliser in from the edge of the six-yard box, getting on the end of an inch-perfect cross from Lucas Moura. Olympiakos were caught napping as Serge Aurier took a quick throw-in and spotted Moura’s run into space down the right.
Moments before Tottenham scored, Olympiakos almost went 3-1 up, Masouras unable to get a toe to an excellent delivery into their penalty area.
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GOAL! Tottenham 2-2 Olympiakos (Kane 50)
Tottenham equalise. Tottenham take a thrown in and Lucas Moura runs into space down the right flank after a quick-witted ball-boy ensures the ball goes back into play as quickly as possible. He sends in a cross for Harry Kane, who makes no mistake.
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48 min: Kostas Tsimikas ploughs through Lucas Moura, giving Tottenham a free-kick in line with the left side of the penalty area. Eriksen whips the ball into the penalty area, where it’s on a plate for Davinson Sanchez. He fails to get his head to the ball, shouldering it over the bar instead. That’s a bad miss.
47 min: Jose Sa claims a Christian Eriksen cross towards the far post confidently, with Harry Kane and Dele Alli lurking with intent nearby.
Second half: Tottenham Hotspur 1-2 Olympiakos
46 min: Play resumes with Tottenham getting the ball rolling. Elsewhere in this group, Bayern Munich are beating Red Star 1-0 at half-time, so a draw will do Tottenham tonight as things stand.
Some half-time reading: Club Brugge scored a 92nd minute equaliser but then had two men sent off for their celebrations against Galatasaray. Read on ...
Half-time: Tottenham 1-2 Olympiakos
Peep! Tottenham go in for the break trailing by the odd goal of three. They’ve been poor tonight, going two behind to goals from Youssef El Arabi and RUben Semedo. A giant stroke of luck just before half-time has enabled them to halve that deficit, however ... Del Alli taking advantage of a monumental howler from Meriah, who took his eye off the ball in a most literal sense.
GOAL! Tottenham 1-2 Olympiakos (Alli 45+1)
Olympiakos gift Spurs a goal. An Aurier cross comes into their penalty area from the right and Yassine Meriah takes a big swing at it and misses completely. Standing behind the defender, Dele Alli is in the right place at the right time and taps in from a couple of yards out.
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42 min: Son tries an ambitious shot from distance, trying to curl the ball into the top bin from the inside left after Olympiakos goalkeeper Jose Sa had given the ball away with a wayward pass. It’s high, it’s wide and Spurs remain two goals behind.
40 min: Harry Kane takes the free-kick, whipping it up and down over the wall. He doesn’t whip it quite hard enough, however, and it skims off the roof of the net. Considering Tottenham won the free-kick for a perfectly clean Semedo tackle on Son that earned the defender a booking, that seems fair enough.
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40 min: A Free-kick for Spurs in a good position about 30 yards from the Olympiakos goal, almost dead centre.
39 min: Dele Alli sends a high, looping cross towards the far post from the left wing, which Olympiakos goalkeeper Jose Sa claims easily. That’s a poor effort from Alli, who should have put some pace on the ball.
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36 min: A case in point: Son tries to cut in from the left wing but is immediately crowded off the ball by two opponents. One of them is Guillherme, who clears the ball downfield. The same thing is happening on the other flank, whenever Lucas Moura gets on the ball.
35 min: Olympiakos look like they have 14 or 15 men on the pitch, so quick are they to crowd around any Tottenham player who receives a pass in or around their penalty area. They played well when the sides drew in Athens and they’re even more impressive tonight.
32 min: Olympiakos centre-back Yassine Mehriah tries his luck with a low drive from a long way out and it’s heart-sin-mouths time for Spurs fans as the ball fizzes narrowly wide of the left upright. Tottenham’s are looking very shaky tonight, all over the pitch. Their defence is wobbly, their midfield can’t keep possession, Dele Alli is being marked out of the game and the collective touch of the front three seems to have deserted them, although they haven’t seen a great deal of the ball.
29 min: Tottenham substitution: Eriksen replaces Dier, who gets an embrace from Mourinho as he leaves the field. “He’ll be fuming,” says Jermaine Jenas on BT Sport co-comms duty. “Taken off after 28 minutes? He’ll be fuming.” He doesn’t look particularly upset.
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28 min: Christian Eriksen is about to come on for Tottenham and I think it’s Eric Dier who’ll be coming off. He hasn’t been significantly worse than any of his team-mates, but Tottenham are giving away a lot of possession in midfield.
26 min: Semedo limps off the pitch at the closest point of exit, near the Tottenham goal, helped on his way by a shove from Gazzaniga. His limp disappears as he jogs around the corner flag and down the touchline, waiting for the referee’s permission to come back on. The crowd boo his return in the strongest possible terms.
24 min: Gazzaniga is caught in no-man’s land as he comes to gather a free-kick in a crowded penalty area. Eric Dier is forced to boot the ball clear and play continues as Ruben Semedo, the goalscorer, is lying prone near the Spurs goal line after being clattered in mid-air by the Tottenham goalkeeper.
23 min: Harry Kane sends a shot fizzing wide of the Olympiakos goal after latching on to a through ball from Lucas Moura. The flag goes up - it wouldn’t have counted even if he’d had his cross-hairs aligned.
21 min: Tanguy Ndombele and Christian Eriksen are sent to warm up after 20 minutes, as Jose ponders his next move. The corner was sent towards the near post, where Winks somehow managed to scuff it across the face of his own goal. With Tottenham’s players looking pretty helpless, Semedo was quickest to react and fired home from a yard or two out.
GOAL! Tottenham 0-2 Olympiakos (Semedo 19)
Olympiakos double their lead. The Greek side score from a corner, taking advantage of more diabolical defending from Tottenham. Ruben Semedo pokes home from about two yards out, getting on the end of a near post flick-on from the dead ball.
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18 min: With Olympiakos attacking on the break, Davinson Sanchez does brilliantly to get back and intercept a Daniel Podence shot on goal when the speedy winger looked like he’d given the central defender the slip and had only Gazzaniga to beat.
16 min: Davinson Sanchez sends a cross into the Olympiakos penalty area, aiming for Harry Kane. The striker’s first touch is a poor one and Ruben Semedo dispossesses him and clears.
13 min: A foul on Danny Rose means Spurs have a free-kick in the are between the left side of the Olympiakos penalty area and the touchline. The ball’s whipped into the penalty area by Harry Winks, Son gets a flick and Jose Sa gets down well to tip the ball around his upright for a corner. Nothing comes of it, although Sa does have a bit of a flap while clearing a second ball into his area.
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12 min: Son picks up the ball on the left touchline and cuts inside. He beats two players on a penetrating run into the penalty area, but a heavy touch lets him down before he can cross or shoot and the ball runs through to Olympiakos goalkeeper Jose Sa.
10 min: Serge Aurier wins a free-kick deep in Olympiakos territory and chucks the ball to Lucas Moura. He attempts to cut inside, but runs down a blind alley and is dispossessed. That’s been the story of Tottenham’s night thus far, but it’s early days yet.
7 min: Olympiakos go ahead and it’s no more than they deserve, but Jose Mourinho will be disappointed that none of his defenders saw fit to close down the goalscorer. El Arabi picked up the ball on the inside right, cut unopposed across the edge of the penalty area and unleashed a fierce left-footed shot. It was low and into the corner, dipping on its way past the outstretched arm of Gazzaniga.
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GOAL! Tottenham 0-1 Olympiakos (El Arabi 6)
The visitors are ahead! Olympiakos take the lead courtesy of a dipping drive from Youssef El Arabi from the edge of the penalty area into the bottom left-hand corner.
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4 min: Olympiakos have the first shot in anger, with Giorgos Masouras picking up a cross-field pass to the left, cutting inside and unleashing a shot from the edge of the penalty area. It stings the palms of Gazzaniga, but doesn’t trouble the goalkeeper unduly.
3 min: For Olympiakos, Daniel Podense goes on a scuttling run towards the edge of the Spurs penalty area, before picking the wrong pass and letting the ball run through to Paulo Gazzaniga. The right winger was a real menace in the corresponding fixture in Athens and gave Ben Davies a very torrid time.
2 min: There appears to be a huge contingent of Olympiakos fans in the house, and they are making their presence felt from their place in one corner of the stadium. On the field, their team is dominating possession in these very early stages.
Tottenham v Olympiakos is go ...
1 min: Olympiakos kick off, their players wearing blue shirts, blue shorts with white trim and blue socks. Tottenham’s wear white shirts, shorts and socks.
Not long now: The teams line up in the tunnel and are led out by skippers Harry Kane and Omar Elabdellaoul respectively. It is a mild and dry night in north London, where a phalanx of photographers has congregated in front of the home dug-out to get pictures of Tottenham’s manager as he takes his seat init for the first time.
Elsewhere on BT Sport: Peter Crouch is a pundit on the studio panel, but barely able to speak as he is really, really hoarse. It is very funny. I suspect some runner will be given the task of funnelling honey and lemon down his throat for the first half, as he’s seriously struggling.
Jose Mourinho speaks: “I expect an amazing reception for the team, which is the only thing that matters tonight,” he says to BT Sport’s Des Kelly, upon being asked what kind of welcome he is expecting on his home debut. “The team, the performance and the result.”
On his team selection: “We thought that we should give that little bit of stability to the team,” he says. “We believe that two days of recovery when you win is enough for you to be ready to play.
On the inclusion of Danny Rose: “Rose is a different player to Davies, but he has been training with us from the first minute we came and knows his role.”
An email: “Not sure if anyone’s aware of this early 70s psych-folk classic by the Watersons,” writes Matt Snow, introducing Danny Rose.
Tottenham v Olympiakos line-ups
Tottenham (4-2-3-1): Gazzaniga, Aurier, Sanchez, Alderweireld, Rose, Dier, Winks, Lucas, Alli, Son, Kane.
Subs: Austin, Vertonghen, Sessegnon, Sissoko, Ndombele, Eriksen, Lo Celso.
Olympiakos (4-3-3): Sa, Elabdellaoui, Semedo, Meriah, Tsimikas, Camara, Guilherme, Bouchalakis, Podence, El Arabi, Masouras.
Subs: Allain, Benzia, Guerrero, Valbuena, Papadopoulos, Torosidis, Randjelovic.
Just the one change for Tottenham: Danny Rose comes in for the injured Ben Davies at left-back, Otherwise Jose Mourinho has picked the same team that started against West Ham on Saturday. There had been talk that Tanguy Ndombele might come in to midfield in place of Harry Winks, but the England international keeps his place.
Tonight’s referee
Bulgarian match official Georgi Kabakov is on coin-toss duty tonight. From Plovdiv, he was also in charge of Jose Mourinho’s most recent Champions League game, the aforementioned Manchester United defeat at the hands of Valencia.
Fun fact: Jose Mourinho will be the fifth different manager that Olympiakos has gone up against in as many games in this season’s Champions League matches.
Changes in personnel at Bayern Munich and Tottenham mean Martins has already stood in the adjacent technical area to Mauricio Pochettino, Vladan Milojevic, Niko Kovac and Hansi Flick. Tonight, he gets to watch Jose gesticulating at close quarters.
Jose Mourinho speaks
“I love the competition as much as everyone in football.,” said Tottenham’s new manager, before going on to demonstrate some of his new found humility. “Not everyone has the privilege to be a Champions League winner but I have done it twice. I would love to win it for a third time but this is not the moment to speak about it – this is the moment to qualify.”
Asked about his team’s chances of winning the tournament, he was typically bullish. “With these boys, I will never be afraid of any Champions League match,” he said. “We need to qualify, that’s the focus. Only when my teams arrive in the quarter-finals, I start thinking we can win it. At this moment, we are far from it and have to qualify. Give me time to work, put my ideas to these boys and I’ll go to any stadium to play against any big opponents in Europe or England and we won’t be afraid of anyone.”
Pedro Martins speaks
“We are here against a very good team but we have ambitions,” said the Olympiakos manager, ahead of a game his team must win if they are to keep their faint hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages alive. “We have done it before. If four months ago someone had said to us we’d be in the Champions League group stage and top of the Greek league, we’d be happy.”
Early team news
Ben Davies will be absent for Tottenham tonight after missing training yesterday with an ankle injury and could be replaced by Danny Rose. Erik Lamela remains sidelined with a thigh injury, while Jan Vertonghen is back in training but not expected to start.
Davinson Sanchez and Toby Alderweireld should start in the heart of the defence, while Tanguy Ndombele is also back in training after recovering from injury and could start in midfield at the expense of Harry Winks or Eric Dier.
For Olympiakos, midfielder Konstantinos Fortounis remains sidelined with an ACL injury he suffered back in July, while central defender Pape Abou Cisse is also a major doubt.
Group B: Tottenham Hotspur v Olympiakos
Under new management, Spurs go into tonight’s match against their Greek visitors knowing a win will guarantee their advancement to the knockout stages of the Champions League. A draw will be enough too, but only if Red Star fail to beat Bayern Munich in Belgrade.
One game into his reign at Tottenham, Jose Mourinho’s last involvement in the Champions League was as manager of a Manchester United side that lost 2-1 against Valencia last December. While United had already qualified for the knockout stages before kick-off in that particular defeat, he will certainly be hoping for a better performance from his new team on his first appearance in the home dug-out at White Hart Lane tonight.
Kick-off is at 8pm, but stay tuned for team news and build-up in the meantime.
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