Tottenham will need to defeat Dutch side AZ Alkmaar next week to keep their Europa League dream alive after Ange Postecoglou’s team suffered a 1-0 away loss on Friday morning AEDT.
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The hosts took the lead in the 18th minute of the first leg of the last-16 tie courtesy of a freak own goal, with Spurs teenager Lucas Bergvall swiping at a corner only for his attempted clearance to loop over goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario.
AZ Alkmaar dominated the contest and were unlucky not to win by a bigger margin, with Vicario making three clutch saves to prevent a blowout. Meanwhile, Tottenham only mustered one shot on goal, in the 87th minute.
“They were lacklustre in their performance. But that’s a better result for Tottenham than it is for AZ,” former Tottenham manager Glenn Hoddle said on the BBC.
“To play so mediocre and come home with just a one-goal deficit, they’ll be happy with that. Not the performance, but the result.”
Former Spurs midfielder Jamie O’Hara said on Sky Sports News: “Tottenham were miles off it.
“Tottenham’s big players didn’t turn up.”
He continued: “It feels like Tottenham are going out of the competition with a whimper.
“Tottenham have shown nothing. There’s been no creativity.”
In another blow for Postecoglou, Dominic Solanke’s long-awaited return from a knee injury only lasted 20 minutes, with the wounded striker hobbling off the pitch and replaced in the first half.
Currently reeling at 13th on the Premier League standings, Tottenham’s season is now dependent on their Europa League success, with next Thursday’s return leg becoming a must-win encounter. However, the Spurs will be without Rodrigo Bentancur for the home game after the midfielder copped his third booking of the season.
“It is very disappointing we perform like this, it is a big wake-up call as next week is the biggest game of the season,” Tottenham captain Heung-Min Son told TNT Sport.
“It was not too much caution, it is always tough playing away in the Europa League and it looked like we did not create anything in the first half.
“It was very sloppy and we did not perform like we should do, everyone is very disappointed with the individual and team performance and we have to look at ourselves, there are no excuses, we were not good enough and nowhere near how we should perform.
“It is only 1-0, it is not finished and we have to do much, much better than we did today.”