SPURS
Same old Dele Alli, same old Tottenham. He seems incapable
of engaging his brain in certain moments of intensity and they seem incapable
of making significant progress in Europe.
Once again, Spurs go out early, falling in the last 32 and
making it a fourth straight season in which they have failed to reach the
quarter-finals of Europe's second competition.
For a club that wants a place among the world's elite, that
simply isn't very good; for manager Mauricio Pochettino, it must be a cause of
increasing irritation, given the clock is ticking ever louder on when he will
win his first trophy. Now, in reality, it is FA Cup or bust for
Tottenham.
But what a different tale this might well have been if Alli
was not so impulsive, not so prone to the flashes of idiocy that pushed the
shin of an opponent close to breaking point at the end of the first half.
It was a disgraceful tackle, well worthy of the red card and
perhaps made worse by the fact it was in retaliation to some rough treatment he
received in a robust challenge a moment earlier.
Clearly, Alli has issues getting his temper under control,
no matter how good he is as a player and irrespective of tired arguments that
curbing his aggression will lesson those gifts.
It will be pointed out that this was his first red card, but
it was not the first time he has lashed out. Not even the second, third or
fourth.
It was an accident waiting to happen and this time it robbed
his own club, given how they dominated the match before and after Christian
Eriksen pulled them level on aggregate in the 10th minute.
At that point they looked set to get it done. But first they
were pulled back by a Harry Kane own goal, meaning they needed two more, and
then they were floored by Alli's lunge.
Victor Wanyama put them ahead again in the second half but,
in the scramble for the vital third, Jeremy Perbet scored for Gent, just as he
had in the first leg.
So, a wasted opportunity in a competition that Pochettino
clearly wanted to embrace.
He had approached the game by calling it a 'final' and
backed this up by fielding his strongest available line-up.
Eriksen and defender Jan Vertonghen came into the side
having missed the first-leg defeat and Moussa Sissoko and Harry Winks dropped
out, with Kyle Walker and Ben Davies stationed as wing backs either side of a
three-man defence.
Bold, ambitious and entirely necessary after the debacle of
the initial performance a week ago.
Pochettino claimed it took him only 50
seconds in Belgium to see his side lacked the focus and sharpness to win that
leg.
Here, it was a white blitz for the first 19 minutes. Walker
was central to much of what was good and then carried the sole burden in those
moments when good became bad.
His pace is one thing, but his desire to beat a man is quite
another for a player who is typically used as a right back but seems to be
thriving with a more attacking brief. It is no great surprise that he has crept
on to Barcelona's radar.
He had already created three chances before Eriksen made the
breakthrough. The goal came from a long ball, delivered by Eric Dier and
misjudged in flight by Kenneth Saief.
It dropped for Eriksen, who outran Rami Gershon and threaded
his shot between Lovre Kalinic's legs. A brilliant finish.
It took 19 minutes for Gent to work a chance of any
description, with Danijel Milicevic getting close enough to goal to necessitate
a mildly desperate tackle from Toby Alderweireld. In isolation it was a
harmless enough situation, except Alderweireld's challenge conceded the corner
that caused the goal.
The delivery was decent, but how infuriating for Pochettino
to see Milicevic given so much freedom to head the delivery back across goal
and into the position from which Kane scored his own goal.
It was actually his fourth since the 2013-14 season —
prolific at both ends.
That left Spurs needing two but still, it was the kind of
performance that might yield them.
Walker created numerous chances and Ben Davies chipped in
with one on the other flank, sending a ball skidding across the six-yard box
and only marginally out of Kane's reach.
It was all rather promising and then suddenly it wasn't —
the legacy of Alli's stupidity.
He had taken a hard tackle immediately beforehand but that
was no justification for the lunge that appeared to bend Brecht Dejaegere's
shin. The bone so easily could have snapped.
Alli disappeared down the tunnel, ignored by his manager,
and took what appeared to be Tottenham's hopes of staying alive with him.
Still they pushed, though. Kane missed a pair of chances
before Wanyama had his moment, surging on to a loose ball near the edge of
Kalinic's area and lashing past Gent's keeper on the hour.
Pochettino leapt
into the air as it went in. Game on.
Spurs pushed but could not do what was needed. In the rush
at one end, they conceded to Perbet at the other. It might all have been very
different. A penny for Alli's thoughts, if there were any.
