Tottenham Hotspur secured their place in the knockout phases of the Champions League in dramatic vogue on Tuesday evening, with Antonio Conte’s facet sealing a 2-1 comeback win over Olympique de Marseille at the Orange Vélodrome.
However, after a sometimes gradual begin, issues weren’t trying good for Spurs at the break, with Chancel Mbemba’s Forty seventh-minute header giving the house facet the lead shortly earlier than the interval – at which level the Premier League facet had been sitting third in the Group D standings.
Then, as was additionally the case in the 3-2 comeback win over AFC Bournemouth final weekend, Tottenham appeared like a totally totally different facet in the second half, with Clement Lenglet’s 54th-minute header drawing the guests degree, earlier than Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg sealed all three factors with the ultimate kick of the recreation.
And, whereas the match-winning Dane was extremely spectacular on Tuesday evening, it was arguably Ivan Perisic who was Antonio Conte’s most necessary participant in opposition to OM, as the 33-year-old effectively and really ran the show from left wing-back.
Indeed, over the course of his 90 minutes on the pitch, the £17m-rated expertise was imperious for Spurs in a defensive capability, making 4 tackles, 4 clearances, two interceptions and blocking two photographs, in addition to profitable eight of his ten duels – at a hit charge of 80%.
The £180k-per-week Croat additionally impressed going forwards, having fun with 48 touches of the ball, making two key passes, discovering his man with two of his six tried crosses – one in every of which assisted Lenglet’s equaliser – and three of his six tried lengthy balls and created one huge probability for his teammates.
These returns noticed the participant who Raj Chohan claimed has “clutch factor embedded in his DNA” earn an especially spectacular SofaScore match ranking of 8.0 – the better of any participant to characteristic in the match – whereas Alasdair Gold additionally awarded the veteran an eight in his personal participant scores, in addition to stating:
“He was ineffective in the first half but grabbed an assist early in the second with his fine curling ball for Lenglet to head home. He got much better as the game wore on and used all of his experience and made a huge block in front of the Spurs goal at one point.”
As such, whereas Hojbjerg was Tottenham’s match-winner on the evening, it was undoubtedly the show-running efficiency of Perisic that supplied Spurs the platform to go on and seal all three factors in opposition to OM – one thing that can have delighted Conte.