Tottenham thought they had their ticket to the Round of 16 in their hands with a goal from Harry Kane 5 minutes into added time, but after an eternity VAR ruled the centre-forward was offside when the penalty kicked in. deviation of Emerson Royal's head.

A decision which angered Antonio Conte, excluded after additional time and who will be absent on the Spurs bench during the trip to Marseille.

With this point, Spurs lead the group with eight units, ahead of the Portuguese and Frankfurt who have seven points and Marseille with six.

A defeat at the Velodrome in six days would eliminate them in any case due to an unfavorable goal difference if they finish level on points with Sporting and Frankfurt who will face each other at the same time.

"Honestly, we didn't play very well (...), but we are still at the head of the group and we have our fate in our hands", admitted after the match the side Matt Doherty, at the microphone of BT Sports.

But on what we saw in London, Marseille would be wrong not to believe it, because Antonio Conte's men, despite the disheveled final, were once again very sluggish and not so reassuring defensively for a team in play. so careful.

Despite the return of Pierre-Emile Höjbjerg in the middle, of Matt Doherty on the right flank or of Lucas Moura in attack, the bronca at the end of the first act was most deserved, as the encephalogram of the whites was flat on this first act .

Worse, the Spurs had been punished by the former nugget of their training center, Marcus Edwards, whom they had let go.

Cleaver match at the Velodrome

A few seconds after a first big chance from Paulinho, who had cut off a cross at the near post, Edwards was able to sink into Tottenham's field without being disturbed and fire a low shot crossed out of reach from Hugo Lloris (0 -1, 22nd).

In the second half again, the Portuguese had the opportunities to kill the match, Lloris making two good saves against Flavio Nazinho (76th) then Pedro Porro, in a tight angle (77th), Nazinho inexplicably missing after the ball returned to him. .

As the minutes went by, the hosts still managed to get close to the opposing goal, but the fact that their most dangerous player was their central defender Eric Dier says a lot about their current attacking shortcomings.

An acrobatic volley (51st), repelled by Antonio Adan, and a too high header from the English international (75th) gave hope to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

But it was only ten minutes from the end that a semblance of release came with a header from Rodrigo Bentancur which got the better of an Adan more busy collapsing to fake a foul than jumping for challenge the ball (1-1, 80th).

Two other heads from Dier (85th, 90th) could have given the qualification from the final whistle to the Londoners, but it is ultimately a cleaver match that will decide the European fate of Tottenham in six days.

© 2022 AFP