Spurs Run On Fumes In Germany But Make It Home

There's this really handy display option on the dashboard in my car that tells the driver approxiamately how many miles worth of petrol he or she has left in the tank. The risks of ignoring this information are two fold. Firstly, eventually you'll end up running out of fuel and be parked up on the side of the road while everyone else passes you on the way to their chosen destination. The second risk is much more damaging in the long run. What will happen as the tank empties is that all of the muck and impurities from the fuel will end up being sucked into the engine and potentially cause long term damage to the efficiency and performance of that engine.

When Spurs returned to the training ground at 3am on Friday morning after the victory over Hoffenheim in the Europa League, the coach would have metaphorically rolled into the car park literally on the last on the fumes from the fuel.

I know that Hoffenheim are an even bigger basket case this season than Spurs have been but its hard to underestimate both the effort put in by the players given the 14 squad members unavailable or the importance of this result. Thats importance with regard to qualifying for the next phase without the dreaded play-off round and the effect on morale and confidence going into Sunday's home game with Leicester.

Spurs started the match really well. One of Porro's searching long passes found Maddison who timed his run perfectly, controlled the ball and confidently finished passed the Hoffenheim keeper. By the time Son put us two ahead after 22 minutes Spurs probably should have been out of sight. Porro missed probably the best of the chances in this period when he scooped a left foot shot wide from a great position. How he had the energy to get there in the first place is a mystery to me though to be fair.

180!! (days without signing any outfield players)

For the last twenty minutes of the first half and the first twenty minutes of the second period, the home side were on top. Brandon Austin, making only his second ever start, conceded a joke penalty which was correctly overturned by VAR and made a couple of other decent saves but he could do nothing about Hoffenheims opening goal when Stach converted a dangerous cross into the far corner.

Far too good to be a third choice keeper.

Less than ten minutes later, we were treated to some classic Son as he ran at his man, befuddled him with a couple of step overs and planted a left foot drive into the bottom corner

Son celebrates a classic Son goal

So, 3-1 up, 13 minutes to go, opposition haven't won since November, time to relax surely? Not really beacause (a) its Spurs and (b) the options on the bench to replace clearly shattered players were minimal. Mikey Moore was already on for the fit-but-not-yet-match-fit Richarlison so the only vaguely sensible sub left was Lankshear who almost immediately replaced Son. Incidentally, this appearance put Sonny into the top ten in the clubs history surpassing Harry Kane (never heard of him sorry). If he avoids injury (lol) for the rest of the season he'll probably finish the campaign in sixth. Legend.


Things actually progressed relatively comfortably. Ben Davies had a great match especially considering its only his second game back after a long injury. He made 17 clearances, the most this season in the competiton. Despite this, the inevitable happened when Mokwa headed in unmarked in the 88th minute. Austin's slight hesitation on the cross was the only even smallish error he made on the night but Mokwa should have been picked up.But I'm very loathed to criticise anybody in defence because by this time they were all physically done.

For once though this season, disaster was avoided and they held on. Spurs finished the game with five teenagers on the pitch when Ange brought Callum Olusesi on for Maddison just after Hoffenheims second goal. Two of the others, Gray and Bergvall dispenced with the usual post match pleasantries and just collapsed with exhaustion.

All this means that a win next week at home to Elfsborg will guarantee qualification for the next phase. Even a draw might be enough but thats a risk we can't afford to take. If they do make it through then this particular group that played on Thursday will definately deserve it.

I write this on the morning of the 25th of January. The window has been open for three and a half weeks and there's still no sign of any outfield help for a manager coping with the worse injury crisis in Europes top five leagues. I lost faith in ENIC years ago but surely, surely must this convince the last of the Levy fan club that they're really not interested in the football part of the business. If your still a beliver at this stage, I'd assume you probably think Donald Trump has been hard done to as well.


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