UEFA Champions League
MOURINHO’S TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR SURVIVE SCARE TO MAKE UEFA LEAGUE’S LAST 16
Jose Mourinho survived a huge scare on his home debut as Tottenham Hotspur manager as his side came from 2-0 down to beat Olympiakos 4-2 and reach the last 16 of the Champions League on Tuesday.
The Greek champions blew a huge chance to give themselves a shot at reaching the knockout stages after scoring twice in the first 20 minutes through Youssef El Arabi and Ruben Semedo.
Dele Alli pounced on a horrible defensive mistake to breathe new life into Spurs before the break and a second half double from Harry Kane either side of Serge Aurier’s fine strike completed the comeback.
Last season’s Champions League finalists can now look forward to the knockout stages for a third straight season, but will go through in second behind Bayern Munich in Group B after the German giants secured top spot with a 6-0 thrashing of Red Star Belgrade.
Spurs have now scored seven goals in winning Mourinho’s first two games in charge to make a good first impression on many supporters unconvinced by the appointment of a former Chelsea manager renowned for a more conservative style of football.
However, the first 20 minutes showed the work Mourinho has ahead to make Tottenham as tight at the back as his most successful sides over the past two decades.
The warning signs were there for the hosts as early as six minutes in when El Arabi was afforded room on the edge of the box to line up his shot and found the bottom corner despite Paulo Gazzaniga getting a hand to it.
Only a brilliant recovery challenge from Davinson Sanchez denied Daniel Podence from doubling the away side’s lead as Spurs were then opened up by one simple pass through midfield.
Moments later it was 2-0 as more sloppy Spurs defending from a corner left Semedo in space to prod home Guilherme’s near-post flick on.
Mourinho had seen enough inside the first half hour to make a change as Eric Dier was sacrificed to make way for Christian Eriksen.
However, it was a huge error from Olympiakos rather than a moment of inspiration that gifted the hosts a route back into the game.
Aurier’s low cross from the right should have been easily cleared by Yassine Meriah, but he let the ball slip under his foot and Alli was on hand to tap in at the back post in first half stoppage time.
That goal made Mourinho’s half-time team talk a far easier one and Spurs built on their momentum by equalising five minutes after the restart.
Quick thinking from a Spurs ball boy and Aurier caught Olympiakos napping as the Ivorian’s throw-in freed Lucas Moura down the right and his cross was swept home by Kane.
Aurier was the unlikely hero once more 17 minutes from time as he sweetly connected with Alli’s cross at the back post to put Spurs in front.
Uncertainty over Eriksen’s future has been one of the scourges of Spurs’ season.
Such a key figure for much of Mauricio Pochettino’s five-and-a-half years in charge, the Dane has more often than not been left on the bench both by the Argentine prior to his dismissal last week and in Mourinho’s first two games in charge.
But he offered a glimpse of the quality he can offer with a wicked dipping free-kick from which Kane stooped to head home his 23rd goal of the season in as many games for club and country.
-AFP
Spain’s LaLiga will be represented by at least five teams in the Champions League next season after Italy’s Lazio were eliminated from the Europa League on Thursday while Athletic Bilbao progressed to the semi-finals.
LaLiga earned the second of two European Performance Spots handed out by UEFA, which go to associations “with the best collective performance by their clubs” in UEFA competitions.
England’s Premier League was the first to secure an extra berth in Europe’s top competition, on top of the four granted to the top four teams in the domestic table.
Villarreal are fifth in the LaLiga standings, with 51 points from 30 matches.
They are three points ahead of sixth-placed Real Betis and eight in front of Celta Vigo and Mallorca, with all three clubs having played one more game than Villarreal.
-Reuters
Real Madrid’s record-breaking manager Carlo Ancelotti had no complaints after his side’s Champions League reign was ended in emphatic fashion by Arsenal in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.
Italian Ancelotti won a record-extending fifth Champions League trophy last season as Real beat Borussia Dortmund at Wembley, but his side went down 2-1 at home to Arsenal for a crushing 5-1 aggregate defeat.
“There are two sides to football, the happy part that has happened to us many times and the sad part we have to handle in the same way. It has happened to us fewer times than to other teams, but we have to manage it because it allows us to be better in the next games.”
When Real keeper Thibaut Courtois saved Bukayo Saka’s early penalty and minutes later Real were awarded a spot kick for a push by Declan Rice on Kylian Mbappe, it seemed that the great escape might still be a possibility.
But Real’s penalty was overturned after a lengthy VAR check, and in truth, they never looked remotely threatening as their bid for a 16th European Cup crown ended in feeble fashion.
“To change the dynamic, we needed something positive, like the penalty he whistled and then took off. We needed something to have more confidence, but we were not able to change the dynamic of the first leg,” Ancelotti said.
Despite the defeat, Ancelotti said Real’s season still has plenty of possibilities, not least trying to bridge a four-point gap to La Liga leaders Barcelona.
“Now we are in the fight for La Liga. We have a disadvantage, but we have the Barcelona game, we have the Copa del Rey final, the Club World Cup, and we have to manage this part, which is another part of football that we are not used to,” he said.
“It’s time to hold our heads high and learn from our mistakes. It’s sad today, but I have absolutely no worries about how my players will respond. We’ll fight on, we’ll learn from the experience, and we’ll try to be better for the next match.”
-Reuters
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Arsenal snuffed out any chance of a famous Real Madrid comeback to reach the Champions League semi-finals after a 2-1 victory in the Bernabeu Stadium completed a 5-1 aggregate win on Wednesday.
Holders and 15-time winners Real never looked like clawing back a 3-0 deficit from last week’s quarter-final first leg, and when Bukayo Saka scored for the visitors in the 65th minute, their fate was effectively sealed.
Vinicius Junior seized on a rare defensive slip a couple of minutes later to rouse the home crowd, but it proved too little too late as Carlo Ancelotti’s side exited feebly.
Arsenal’s superiority over the two legs was underlined in stoppage time as Gabriel Martinelli burst through to score.
They will face Paris St Germain in their first Champions League semi-final since 2009.
“I think it’s such a special night for this club, it’s a historic night for this club,” said Arsenal’s Declan Rice, whose two sublime free kicks put his side in control last week.
“There was a lot of talk coming in about them coming back from the dead, they’ve done it so many times before. But we had so much belief and confidence from that first leg that we had enough to come here and win the game.”
A cacophony of noise greeted kickoff with the home fans fuelled by the hope of witnessing what would have been one of the greatest Champions League comebacks.
But Real’s knack of extricating themselves from difficult positions in a competition they won six times in the previous 11 seasons deserted them as they were comprehensively outplayed.
“Did we fall short of what we wanted in pure football terms? Perhaps,” Real captain Lucas Vazquez said. “They really are terrifically organised defensively.”
PENALTY MISS
Real needed a storming start, and Mbappe had the ball in the Arsenal net in the opening minutes but was offside when chesting in a Vinicius cross.
Arsenal were in no mood to simply sit and protect their lead, though, and Saka forced a great save from Courtois. They were handed the chance to kill off the tie when Raul Asencio needlessly hauled down Mikel Merino from a corner, and referee Francois Letexier eventually awarded a penalty after checking a pitch-side VAR monitor.
Saka opted for a Panenka-style chipped penalty, and Courtois clawed away the ball.
It looked like a potentially pivotal moment, and when Letexier pointed to the penalty spot at the other end after Kylian Mbappe tumbled under minimal contact from Rice, Arsenal’s night looked like taking a turn for the worse.
After five painstaking minutes, however, Letexier was again invited by VAR to view the monitor and to a chorus of whistles from the home fans, overturned his original decision.
That scare aside, Arsenal coped easily with Real Madrid’s famed frontline who were given little to work with.
Arsenal keeper David Raya was not required to make a save before halftime as Real’s predilection for hopeful crosses into the area proved easy pickings for the visiting defence.
Real’s Mbappe barely had a sniff of a chance as Arsenal showed great control and Saka made up for his first-half miss with a clinical finish after being sent clear by Merino.
William Saliba gifted Real a lifeline when he was caught in possession on the edge of his area, allowing Vinicius to score, but there was never any sense of panic in the visiting ranks.
Martinelli put the icing on the cake in added time, again from a Merino assist, to send Arsenal’s fans into raptures.
-Reuters
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