Tottenham unrecognisable as Gent secure shock Europa League victory against Mauricio Pochettino's men
Gent 1 Tottenham Hotspur 0: Jeremy Perbet's second-half strike handed the home side an unexpected victory against the visitors
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Your support makes all the difference.Tottenham Hotspur need to wake up. Five days after pulling the plug on their own title challenge at Anfield, they risked doing the same in the Europa League this evening. Spurs lost 1-0 to a KAA Gent side who, as Liverpool did on Saturday, out-did them for energy, speed and drive - precisely the qualities this team are meant to have so much of.
Of course a 1-0 deficit is not fatal and Spurs could plausibly win 2-0 and make it into the last-16. But the evidence of their Wembley games so far this season would suggest it is unlikely. They will certainly need to play far better than this, where with a nearly full-strength team they only had one dominant spell, just after half-time, just before Jeremy Perbet scored the goal to put Gent ahead.
Spurs players have been speaking all season about the importance of finally winning a trophy this year, which is why Pochettino was let down by their lack of desire when they lost at Liverpool. The Europa League is winnable, there are few teams better than Spurs in it. And yet when called upon to produce under pressure here, against a motivated but modest team, Spurs went flat.
On Sunday they go to Craven Cottage in the fifth round of the FA Cup and they need to win. Not just to reach the quarter-finals, but to show that they can respond to a set-back. That is what they wanted to do tonight in Belgium, but it did not happen that way.
The first-half was not much of a spectacle, with Tottenham pinned back by Gent’s superior energy. There were few chances, although Gent were the better side. When Pochettino changed formation at the start of the second half, ditching his 4-2-3-1, it felt, for 10 brief minutes, as if Spurs had turned the game in their favour.
Kyle Walker was pushed up as a wing-back and his cross created a chance for Harry Kane, three minutes after the re-start. But Kane spun and hit the post, a moment on which the whole game turned. Mousa Dembele and Dele Alli found threatening positions and Spurs fleetingly looked on top.
But that dangerous change set up Spurs’ own downfall. After Spurs’ strong spell of pressure, Nana Asare pushed into the space behind Walker. He played a clever ball to Danijel Milicevic who pulled the ball back to Jeremy Perbet in the box. He finished and Genk had a lead they never let slip.
Pochettino knew that Spurs needed something different so he took off Dembele for Heung-Min Son, and then Moussa Sissoko, trying his futile best at left-back, for Georges-Kevin N’Koudou. Even Christian Eriksen came on,to bring Spurs back to full strength, but it was not enough. Tottenham created very little in that final spell, Eriksen fizzed a shot over the bar, but Lovre Kalinic in the Gent goal had no real saves to make as Gent saw out a famous win.
What was so frustrating for Tottenham is that they tried to put everything they had into this game. Pochettino stuck with nine of the players who started but did not perform at Anfield last Saturday, giving them the chance to atone for one of the worst defeats of the Pochettino era. But for most of the first half they looked tired and deflated, still feeling the after-effects of that bad defeat.
This was the biggest game of Gent’s season, and coach Hein Vanhaezebrouck had them playing in their intense physical 3-4-3 system that was perfect for getting down the sides of Spurs. With wingbacks Thomas Foket and Kennet Saief bombing on, Gent looked like Spurs at their best, and Pochettino’s team could only hang in, trying to survive.
Despite the Gent bombardment, Toby Alderweireld and Eric Dier stood up stronger at centre-back, avoiding any of the early errors that cost them so much at Liverpool. Spurs got a foothold into the game just before the break but were never more than holding their own.
When Tottenham tried to turn it up after break, they unbalanced themselves, conceded and lost. That great balance, that fierce energy, that they played with in December and January has gone. It has cost them their Premier League campaign and it could cost them the Europa League too. They need to rediscover it before Sunday or it could cost them the FA Cup too, and another trophy-less season.
Gent (3-4-3): Kalinic; Gigot, Mitrovic, Asare (Gershon, 79); Mitrovic, Dejaegere, Esiti, Saief; Simon, Perbet (Coulibaly, 74), Milicevic
Tottenham (4-3-2-1): Lloris; Walker, Alderweireld, Dier, Davies; Winks (Eriksen, 80), Wanyama, Dembele (Son, 68); Sissoko (N’Koudou, 71), Alli; Kane
MoM Foket
Rating 6
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