Published: 5 April, 2013
By DAN CARRIER

Europa League
SPURS 2, BASEL 2

SPURS face a massive struggle to keep their Europa Cup dreams alive after they scraped a 2-2 draw against Swiss champions Basel at White Hart Lane last night (Thursday).

Two first-half goals by the visitors mean Andre Villas-Boas's weary charges have to head to Switzerland next week and win if they are to book themselves a semi-final berth.

But it could have been much worse: Spurs were outplayed for much of the tie.

After some early to'oing and fro'ing, Spurs settled and began to work some neat stuff together, without finding any real space to work goalbound shots. But the gameplan began to wobble on 25 when Aaron Lennon had to head for the dressing room with an injury: before his replacement Gylfi Sigurdsson had got going, Spurs were increasingly having to defend desperately.

Then, on 30, Basel, who had had the better chances, went a goal up through a Valentin Stocker tap-in after a neat move down the right.

Three minutes later, terrible defending saw Spurs go further behind from a stooped header by Fabian Frei.

Spurs then had a little spell of possession as Bale went wide right, Holtby sat central and suddenly chances came. On 39, Adebayor stabbed home from close range and a vital first-half goal gave the side some hope.

On 57, the game was back on when Gylfi Sigurdsson snuck inside his marker and unleashed a great effort from the edge of the box that took a spinning deflection and Spurs had clawed their way back into the tie.

Spurs then feinted and parried as they tried to get an undeserved winner, but with too many of their players not hitting the required level, it'll take a miracle in Basel next Thursday to progress any further.

Spurs: Friedel, Naughton, Gallas, Vertonghen, Assou-Ekotto, Bale, Dembele, Parker, Holtby, Lennon, Adebayor.

SPURS COMMENT by Dan Carrier

TWO away goals is not insurmountable – but it means Spurs will have to greatly improve on a slipshod performance if we want to progress.

AVB has long spoken of the need to use his whole squad and that he thinks we have the resources to challenge for the Europa as well as qualify for the Champions League – but the switches in the back four, that saw Assou-Ekotto, Naughton, Vertonghen and Gallas line up in front of Friedel, simply couldn't handle Basel's powerful and incisive running.

Having an eye on the crucial league game against Everton on Sunday meant we took both eyes off the job.