Tottenham vs CSKA Moscow a few quick thoughts
Dan Tracey
December 8, 2016
1,641 Views
- Again I had the pleasure of being at Wembley last night so my thoughts are from the view of sitting up in the top tier
- Well at the least the stadium jinx is over
- That win last night secures Tottenham’s place in the Europa League and means they will be playing in European competition after Christmas
- It may not be the competition that Spurs fans want but we’re a part of it so we may as well give it our best shot
- Who knows it may very well give us a direct route to the Champions League next season
- That said, there are still 9 hurdles to clear so thoughts of Europa League glory are still a long way away
- As for last night the atmosphere was a bit more subdued but also relaxed at the same time
- That said it was important to get a win if not for Europa League participation but for the fact that we need to get used to winning at this ground
- Credit must go to Mauricio Pochettino for playing a near full strength lineup with only Mousa Dembele rested in place of Harry Winks
- That showed that he was treating this game and the fans with maximum respect and not making us sit through a reserve team runout
- With only a draw needed to secure third in the group there wasn’t as much pressure on the players as last night and it showed in the way Spurs started the game
- They started the brightest had tested Igor Afinkeev on numerous occasions
- But there were wasteful in front of goal when it really mattered
- Once again Tottenham were hit with another sucker punch. This time it was Alan Dzagoev who silenced the Tottenham fans when he put CSKA Moscow ahead after 33 m minutes
- Thoughts of ‘here we go again’ were made of vocal as Spurs now risked being dumped out of Europe altogether
- Thankfully though we only had to wait a couple of minutes to restore parity
- Dele Alli ended his goal drought by scoring his first in eight matches to draw Spurs level
- And Mauricio Pochettino’s men would be in front in the stroke of half time when Harry Kane was on hand to slot home after a well worked move
- With that goal coming just before the break it gave Spurs an extra lift and took the wind out of CSKA’s sails
- Spurs had control of the second half and that meant it was the perfect time to bring Toby Alderweireld off the bench
- After being absent for so long the Belgian international received a standing ovation from the Wembley crowd
- Moments later his first touch of the ball bought out an almighty road
- Welcome back Toby
- And with fifteen minutes to go the win would be complete when Igor Akinfeev spilled Dele Alli’s effort into his own net to wrap. The win for Spurs
- At that point myself and many others departed to beat the traffic but I don’t think there was all that much to miss
- So we are back to Thursday/Sunday football again
- Perhaps not we wanted but we may as well get behind the team and look forward to a slightly different European adventure next year
- The draw is Tomorow and we will be one of the seeds due to dropping down from the Champions League
- With Sevilla not in the competition this season someone has to win it
- So why not us?
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