After Tottenham Hotspur’s second failed attempt at making Wembley feel like home in the Champions League, their qualification hopes hang by a thread after a 0-1 loss to Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday night.
Tottenham are now third place in group E after another frustrating performance in front of 80,000 fans at Wembley Stadium. The 1-0 loss actually compliments Spurs, after one of the worst defensive displays in the Mauricio Pochettino era. Some sloppy defending from Kyle Walker and Eric Dier really didn’t help Tottenham’s confidence, and they weren’t the solid unit we’ve seen in the Premier League so far this season.
Right from the start of the game Leverkusen were pressing high and keeping constant pressure on the defence, forcing mistakes in key areas. To be honest the most memorable thing we saw from Tottenham in the opening half hour was Dembele’s vital block before the Belgian was subbed off with yet another injury setback. Vincent Janssen’s introduction saw him up front with Son Heung-min moving to the wing, but Spurs were still being pushed back into their own half. A 20-yard effort from Christian Eriksen was the only effort Spurs created in the opening 45 minutes, but it was always heading straight for goalkeeper Brenda Leno. The final and best opportunity of this half fell to Julian Brandt in the 43rd minute who should have really done better after a poor piece of defending from Walker, but Jan Vertonghen’s deflection proved to be vital to end the half level.
Pochettino would have been furious with what he saw in the opening 45 minutes, but his words could not have set into the Spurs players heads for long because after the opening ten minutes of the second half Bayer Leverkusen took control once again. Dele Alli missed out on what looked like an obvious penalty but the referee saw nothing in the challenge from five yards.
The opening goal came from a Hernandez shot that hit Ben Davis on the way through, landing at Kevin Kampl’s feet inside the penalty area who calmly slotted home.
Now that Tottenham were chasing the game, we expected them to go all guns blazing to rescue a point but they never really got going until the end. The closest anybody in white came to finding the net was Dier from a well taken free kick.
Leverkusen held on for three vital points which took them into second place behind Monaco who won 3-0 away in Russia to CSKA Moscow. Spurs sit in third place with 4 points, and have a lot of work to do in the two remaining fixtures.
The result means that it is now six games winless in all competitions for Pochettino and Tottenham, with a testing away trip to flying Arsenal on Sunday in the North London Derby, followed by a hugely important November fixture list which includes West Ham, Chelsea and Monaco.
The fans, manager and players will all be desperate to see Harry Kane and Toby Alderwerield return to fitness. Tottenham only sit three points behind top spot in the Premier League, but it’s now 450 minutes without a goal from open play.
