Europa League Match Thread - Tottenham V Lyon

Personally I thought you deserved that, enjoyed the game two good teams, 1 outstanding player

 

The look on the keeper's face before the kick said it all. He was shaking his head uncertainly when he was talking to a teammate...like, all very well and good, but if he hits another one like the first, defensive positioning isn't going to make any difference.

 

fair summing up

 

Hey! I think he hit a knuckle ball, in American baseball parlance. If a ball spins little enough (between 1 and 2 revolutions for a baseball over 60 feet), it moves around wildly in the air, more often than not dipping very sharply at the end of its flight. Anyway, the slow motion made it look like it had the knuckling non-spin. I'd assumed it would have heavy topspin.

 

Oh to score three or four. Please Ade,get your act together,you missed a sitter.

 

If we had a striker that could read bales crosses then it would make life easier.

 

If every 'sitter' resulted in a goal, this would not be football as we know it.
We'd do well to remember that football players are not machines.

 

Yes Boss I agree but......................! Anyway we take a lead to France and it could have been wider than tonight so I'm hopeful that we'll progress. We are making hard work of it though as in the group stages.

 

except Bale.

 

Indeed..A predatory striker like Hernandez, for example, would have a field day with the quality of crosses that Bale puts in..

 

Just dont telll Levy, as he will sell Bale to utd, take Hernandez in part exchange and leave us with a new problem.

 

Just back from the game and was wondering how the comments were forming...... As if I couldn't have guessed!!

First half I thought we were pretty decent in most departments (except Dempsey). Benny was back to something like his best and Lennon was linking up well with Walker. 1 - 0 was a fair reflection.
Second half was dreadful, with Parker anonymous and Dembele failing to impose himself. Lennon looked like he had never met Walker before and we created **** all. Dempsey continued to disappoint - so slow at times it was if he was running on soft sand. And poor Sig when he came on looked exactly what he is - a half decent lad playing with zero confidence. The only bright sides were Holtby, who again looked bright and inventive and the defence in general and Gallas in particular.

Credit to Lyon to some degree, but although they looked dangerous in the 2nd half, their goal was something completely out of the blue - a quite extraordinary strike. But I guess we can't exactly complain too much about that state of affairs......

Note some comments about Ade. Well, he certainly didn't shine, but was isolated most of the time due to Dempseys lack of pace and only had a couple of chances. He worked hard enough and I can't recall the 'simple chance' he missed. The snap shot on the turn he could have done better with, but was by no means easy.

A least we go to France with a goal advantage - not an easy match but have a feeling we will get through.

Now - was there anyone else I forgot to mention????????

 

Unbelievable stuff from Bale again! The second half was Lyon's except for the magician Bale. Interesting second leg, but Spurs are going to have to play a lot better than that.

 

Just back.

What a dire game, other than 3 wondergoals. Definitely agree that other than the defence which looked pretty decent the whole team played like strangers tonight; Parker and Dembele weren't bad but Adebayor and Dempsey were very frustrating. Bale wasn't even particularly impressive bar the two free kicks. Definitely riding our luck at the moment, winning despite playing poorly is however supposed to be the hallmark of great teams. Hopefully the performances improve soon though as this fortune, and Bale's streak, aren't going to last forever.

On a side note, was disappointed with the lack of Valentines day songs tonight, would have loved for Nayim to have sung this at half time rather than that inaudible interview...

[video=youtube;m7EnYrW0oQM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7EnYrW0oQM&noredirect=1[/video]

 

Also, was Bale's second fairly saveable? Haven't seen a replay but looked to me as if the keeper totally flapped at it, probably still ****ting himself from the first one...

 

Would it be wrong for me to say that Bale to us is like Uncle Percy to Arsenal last season.In a mess without him.....?

 

GOALS:

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As a fan theres something satisfying about playing crap predictaBALE football but having one of europes leading players put on a show for us with individual brillance.

Sure it can't last and we have to perform better but lets enjoy having Bale while fans look on with envy.

Although Villas Boas is lucky to have the attention taken away from his tactics/style.

 

You could argue that Bale is unbalancing the team by his roaming the fact that he is winning the games for us could be drawing the attention away from that. Dembele is too defensive minded, Ekotto is having to do too much work up front and the passes to Ade were too reminiscent of when we had Crouch up front. I am hoping that Holtby played from the start can resolve some of these issues. The other one I would mention is Dempsey he works hard but I just don't think he's up to it we would be better served to give Sigurdsen more of a chance.

Bale is now the highest profile player in the PL and that can only be good for Spurs in the window, provided we keep him.