Spurs win, restore English pride
Print Edition
Tottenham Hotspur restored some pride to English soccer by succeeding where Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City all failed over the last two weeks by winning a match in Europe.
Spurs came from behind at White Hart Lane on Thursday to score a sensational 3-1 win for a 3-2 aggregate success over Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk of Ukraine to reach the last 16 of the Europa League.
They are the English Premier League’s last surviving representative in the competition after Swansea City was eliminated following a 1-3 loss to Napoli.
Swansea became the fifth EPL team, including Spurs, to lose a European game this month following the 0-2 defeats suffered by Arsenal, Manchester United and Manchester City to Bayern Munich, Olympiakos and Barcelona, respectively in the first legs of their Champions League last 16 ties.
Spurs were beaten 0-1 by Dnipro, managed by their former manager Juande Ramos, in the first leg of their round of 32 matchup last week but bounced back to clinch the tie on Thursday.
So far Chelsea, which drew 1-1 with Galatasaray in the first leg of their Champions League tie in Turkey is the only EPL team to have avoided defeat.
Spurs’s victory now means they face Benfica in the last 16 for a first continental clash since their epic 1962 European Cup semifinal which the Portuguese side won 4-3 on aggregate before retaining the trophy with a 5-3 win over Real Madrid.
Biggest crowd ever
Benfica won the first leg 3-1 in front of 70,000 fans in Lisbon while Spurs won the second leg 2-1 in front of a 64,448 crowd at White Hart Lane, the biggest crowd ever to watch a European match there.
On Thursday, a crowd of 34,815 saw two goals from Emmanuel Adebayor — who has now scored 11 goals in 15 matches this season — and a freekick from Christian Eriksen give Spurs what seemed an unlikely win after Dnipro extended its aggregate lead when Roman Zozulya headed it in front early in the second half.
But the game turned when Zozulya was dismissed after 63 minutes for head-butting Spurs defender Jan Vertonghen.
Spurs had equalized shortly before the sending off through Eriksen for what proved to be the first of three goals in a maniacal 13-minute spell.
Manager Tim Sherwood said afterwards: “I was convinced before the game we needed three goals to win it and I think we responded very, very well once we went behind.”
Spurs will host the first leg against Benfica, beaten in last season’s final by Chelsea, on March 13 with the return at Lisbon’s Stadium of Light a week later.
On Wednesday, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said that despite the poor set of results he believed it was too early to judge whether English clubs were in decline in European competition.
Ironically it was Arsenal’s near neighbor and arch-rival which proved he may have a point.
Napoli, which saw off Swansea’s challenge, will meet Porto in another intriguing last-16 tie while Serie A rivals Juventus and Fiorentina will face each other in an all-Italian clash.
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