Young Boys Bern 3-2 TOTTENHAM
Tottenham Hotspur recovered from the verge of calamity last night to rescue its hopes of progressing into the Champions League group stages for the first time in the club's history.
3-0 down inside 30 minutes at Young Boys' stadium in Bern, the London club - which finished fourth in last year's EPL - pulled two goals back without reply. This means that any low-scoring win will see Spurs progress.
Despite entering the tie as strong favourites and on the back of an impressive performance against the world's richest club, Manchester City, at the weekend, a combination of shoddy defending and cut-throat attacking by the Swiss led to Senad Lulic, Henri Bienvenu and Xavier Hochstrasser firing past Gomes in the visitors' goal.
Tottenham defensive trio Sebastian Bassong, captain Michael Dawson and Wilson Palacios were leaden-footed and the home side brutally capitalised on this lethargy.
However, it was Cameroon international Bassong's header just before half-time which sparked Spurs into life.
In the second-half, Young Boys learnt a tough lesson, when Russian striker Roman Pavlyuchenko, who had lacked quality all night, played a neat one-two with Robbie Keane and lashed the ball into the top corner with five minutes remaining.
In summary, an 'excellent defeat', said Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp. Despite the insipid performance, Spurs will remain confident that at White Hart Lane, they can start faster in front of their home fans and dictate the pace of the game thereafter in order to nullify the lively threat that striker Bienvenu posed all last night.
Tottenham Ratings:
Gomes 5; Corluka 5, Bassong 5, Dawson 3, Assou-Ekotto 5 (Huddlestone 7); Giovani 6, Palacios 4, Modric 5 (Kranjcar 6), Bale 6; Pavlyuchenko 5, Defoe 4 (Keane 6)
Goals: Bassong 42', Pavlyuchenko 83'
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