Spurs in action in Lisbon last night

Published: 21 March, 2014
By DAN CARRIER

Europa League
BENFICA 2 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 2
(Benfica win 5-3 on aggregrate)

CAPTAIN Aaron Lennon said a special thank you to the 3,000 Spurs fans who travelled to Lisbon yesterday (Thursday) after they watched their side crash out of the Europa League.

Spurs had trailed 3-1 from the home leg and while they managed to get to 2-1 in their attempts to turn the tie around and had a late penalty shout disallowed, a last minute spot kick for the home side sealed the aggregate defeat.

Lennon, who captained a make shift side in the Portuguese capital, said on his Twitter feed: “We were unlucky tonight. We gave away too much in the first leg. The fans were legendary out there, as always.”

Manager Tim Sherwood faced Benfica without a centre back available and instead paired midfielder Sandro and rookie full back Zeki Fryers in defence together for the first time.

Spurs started brightly, with winger Andros Townsend going close and forward Roberto Soldado having two chances to open the scoring. But the tie looked dead and buried on 34 when Benfica's Ezequiel Garay finished coolly, making it 4-1 on aggregate.

However, Sherwood's young team put together a memorable second half and went down fighting: Belgian forward Nacer Chadli hit two goals in two minutes late on and suddenly Spurs smelt blood. His first, a neat turn and drive gee'd up his team mates and a minute after that he pounced on a header by substitute Harry Kane.

Spurs went close again through Gylfi Sigurdsson and then the dying moments saw Kane bundled over in the box. A strong call for a penalty was waved away – his team mates raised their arms in unison as he hit the ground and later replays showed it could have gone Tottenham's way.

The referee did award a spot kick in added time at the other end, though, when Sandro was adjudged to have fouled Benfica forward Lima, who then converted from the spot, finally making their progress to the quarter finals secure.

Goal scorer Chadli told the club website after the match he and his team mates believed they were going to achieve an unlikely comeback.

He said: “We knew after conceding the goal and going 1-0 down we had to score a minimum of three to take it into extra time. That was tough for us but we knew if we scored one, we could do it. After the first goal, we all started to believe. We pushed and pushed and after the second goal, I really felt we could do it. We had chances after that, Gylfi's header was a great save and we gave everything.”

Spurs: Friedel, Naughton, Sandro, Fryers, Rose, Sigurdsson, Bentaleb, Lennon, Chadli, Townsend (Eriksen, 75), Soldado (Kane, 71)