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Abject Champions League Exit Ranks as One of Tottenham’s Biggest Disappointments
- Updated: November 23, 2016
When Tottenham Hotspur finally secured qualification for the Champions League last season for the first time in five years it felt like an afterthought.
Manager Mauricio Pochettino and his side were in the middle of a fight for the Premier League title. After all the near-misses and heartaches of previous attempts to get back, they had skipped ahead and jumped straight into contention for a greater glory that regularly competing in Europe’s top tier was supposed to be the best way of preparing them for.
When that challenge ended unsuccessfully it was a nice consolation to know they still had completed that other objective. Unfortunately for their fans, the team that has taken to the field in the Champions League this season has played more like it was an unwanted consolation prize than a long-desired goal.
Tottenham’s all-too-swift exit from the tournament was more complicated than that. Nevertheless, in the wake of a 2-1 defeat to AS Monaco confirming their elimination, there are going to be plenty of questions asked about what went wrong.
Whatever Pochettino and his players offer up, what is certain is that this ranks as one of the biggest disappointments in the club’s recent history. They were confident of coming out of Group E with grander nights to follow, but it is Monaco and Bayer Leverkusen who will progress instead.
🎉 Through tonight… 🎉Monaco (group winners)LeverkusenMadridLeicester (group winners)Juventus 👏👏👏👏👏#UCL
— Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) November 22, 2016
“We know everything was good after the weekend—a great victory against West Ham to lift us, to recover that winning feeling,” Pochettino told Tottenham’s official website before Tuesday’s game. “It’s very important for us now. We know we must win and take the three points if we want to go to the next round.”
As it turned out, staying in the Champions League was not as motivating to Spurs as coming from behind to see off London rivals West Ham United. In fairness, Monaco are a far better team than the Hammers.
They twice caught Spurs out at Wembley Stadium in September to win 2-1. On this occasion, they reaffirmed their superiority over the north Londoners by suffocating their attack and even more frequently highlighting their deficiencies down the other end.
West Ham gained some headway in the first half of their game by similarly exploiting the narrowness of the Spurs midfield. Monaco dominated the wide areas via the charging runs of full-backs Djibril Sidibe and Benjamin Mendy, as well as the calculated work of attackers Valere Germain and Bernardo Silva making the most of those distractions.
They did not have to contend with the presence of regular starting centre-back Jan Vertonghen as West Ham did. But even if Pochettino had not rested the Belgian to avoid Spurs losing another left-sided defender for Saturday’s game with Chelsea (Danny Rose is …
