Tottenham defeated Marseille 2-1 to go to the round of 16 of the Champions League. Clement Lenglet’s goal offset Chancel Mbemba’s opening goal, and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg scored the game-winning goal. It follows a tight build-up to the game, where the outcome may place the team anywhere from first to third in the group.
Antonio Conte often speaks of the need to “suffer” for success in football and this must have been a night of truly exquisite suffering for the Italian, high up in the stands of the Stade Velodrome, removed from his players but evidently with them in spirit all the same.
Spurs, with head coach Antonio Conte in the stands, lost forward Son Heung-min to a head injury in a torrid opening period but were a different team after the break and took control after Lenglet’s equaliser.
For the visitors, Hojbjerg hit the crossbar, but Marseille could have scored late after Sead Kolasinac unexpectedly missed an opportunity to score with a header. Hojbjerg then completed the win in injury time to put Tottenham on top of the group and drop Marseille, who briefly held the top spot earlier in the evening, to fourth place and outside of Europe.
Tottenham assistant coach Cristian Stellini said: “The performance we have to analyse. We repeat the same routine as the last three or four games by being behind. We didn’t use power or intensity in the first half. We let them play too much in our half. We lose the pitch. They had the control of the game.
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“After the second half, when we change in a 3-5-2, we had more control. We play a good second half.
“I enjoy when we win. These guys deserve to win, we are a good team but we have to show for 90 minutes. We have to do our best for all of the game.
“I spoke with Antonio – he is tired because the game in the crowd for him is not normal. He wastes a lot of energy. It’s better to be on the touchline with the players.”
In a dramatic twist of events, the French side went from being through in the Champions League to dropping out of Europe altogether. As for Spurs, they will be pleased to be in the next phase after a nervous evening in France.
