Wow! What a way to introduce yourselves to the Champions League!
For 44 minutes, Spurs ran the show in Bremen against a team with considerable experience of playing in the biggest competition in the world.
Bale and Van der Vaart caused huge problems down the right side of the German defence, Jenas dominated in the middle of the pitch and Crouch's presence troubled the home team's central defenders.
2-0 inside 20 minutes, Tottenham fans in dreamland and then it all fell apart.
After Pasanen had only managed to divert Bale's whipped cross into his own net from six yards, Van der Vaart curled a delicious cross onto Crouch's head after Jenas has sumptuously found the Dutchman with a volleyed crossfield ball. The Tottenham Globetrotters!
Three words: Benoit Assou-Ekotto. From the sublime to the ridiculous. Having sent Bale away with a great ball over the top of Bremen's defence in the build-up to Tottenham's opening goal, the Cameroon left-back sliced a clearance horribly out of play and then allowed Hugo Almeida to flick a header past Cudicin to give the Germans the perfect tonic going into the interval. After the break, he forgot how to pass the ball. Full stop.
Cue the Marko Marin show and Tottenham's rapid decomposition. Putred. Stray passes, defensive mindset, lack of shape. Back to cold Spurs. The bad old days where one goal can lead to five.
Fortunately, it did not. For after Marin drove a 20-yard effort past Cudicini at his near post, Bremen knocked but somehow did not open a vulnerable Spurs defence. In fact, Crouch had the chance to score his fifth goal in the competition in only two games, but dragged wide from eight yards with the goal at his mercy and only five minutes remaining on the clock.
A good point for Spurs - but with Twente picking up a point against Inter Milan, not nearly as good a start in the group for the Londoners as it promised to be early on.
MAN OF THE MATCH: Marko Marin (Werder Bremen)
Ratings:
Cudicini 6; Kaboul 6, Corluka 5, King 5, Assou-Ekotto 5; Lennon 4, Jenas 7, Huddlestone 6, Bale 8; Van der Vaart 8; Crouch 7
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