Spirited Spurs Display Leaves Plenty With More Questions Than Answers

Tottenham Hotspur’s hopes of qualification from the Group stages of the Champions League were dealt another blow in yesterday evening’s Wembley based clash against Barcelona.

Having lost the opener against Inter Milan, Barcelona was always going to be a tough tie but it was a challenged we should’ve relished, and in many ways, there were positives to take from the showing.

Having quickly found ourselves behind in the game, the players dug in and goals from Harry Kane and Erik Lamela did give us hope, but a masterclass from Lionel Messi ultimately proved to be our undoing as he hit a brace in the second period to give them a 4-2 victory on the day.

People will pour over the game and come to their own conclusions and no doubt, Inter Milan will take on more of a missed opportunity as fans look back with qualification now difficult, but sometimes you have to accept the opposition are better and rather than pulling your hair out, it just shows how much more improvement Spurs need to make for us to truly be where fans want the club.

Treat it as a learning curve and take what we can from it and look to be better next time.

Tottenham Hotspur				Barcelona
Kane (52), Lamela (66)				Coutinho (2), Rakitic (28), Messi (56, 90)
Lloris				ter Stegen
Trippier				Cabral Semedo
Alderweireld				Pique
Sanchez				Lenglet
Davies				Alba
Winks				Ramos de Oliveira Melo			87
Wanyama			57	Busquets			91
Moura				Rakitic
Lamela			79	Messi
Son Heung-Min			66	L Suarez
Kane				Coutinho			83
Substitutes
Rose				D Suarez
Dier			57	Dembele
Walker-Peters				Rafinha			83
Sissoko			66	Cillessen
Llorente			79	El Haddadi
Gazzaniga				Vidal			87
Skipp				Vermaelen			91

Game Statistics
9	Goal attempts	13
5	On Target	8
3	Corners	1
18	Fouls	9
5	Yellow Cards	2
0	Red Cards	0
39	%	61