Tottenham Embarrassed in Humiliating Loss at Dinamo Zagreb

It seemed an unthinkable outcome before the match, however, by the end, it almost seemed ridiculous Tottenham ever led the tie and Dinamo Zagreb was destined to advance. Coming in with a 96% chance of advancing and a two-goal lead, Tottenham Hotspur lollygagged there was a way to a fruitless first-half, then completely capitulated over the second half and extra time. Three goals from Mislav Orsic knocked Tottenham completely out of Europe for this season and possibly next.

First-half to Forget for Tottenham

Tottenham did start with what seemed a strong set-up with Harry Kane leading the line and Hugo Lloris in goal. However, the absence of stars Heung-Min Son – injured – and Pierre-Emile Højbjerg – card accumulation – really hurt the team.

WIthout Son Tottenham lacked anyone to run the channels and provide the over-the-top threat to stretch the field. We recommended Steven Bergwijn for this task in our projected XI, instead, Mourinho went with Lamela, Dele, and Moura behind Kane – three dribblers. Thus Tottenham lost the service Son provides as well as his ability to stretch the field.

Without Højbjerg, Spurs had the engine room of Harry WInks and Moussa Sissoko and the team ran far more like a Yugo than a precision machine. While neither made any big mistakes in the first half, neither did anything to drive the team. Sissoko did plenty to contribute to the defeat in the second and Winks watched much of the capitulation from the bench.

The Lilywhites had 69% possession in the first half but only managed four total shots. Of those four only one was on target. Whereas Dinamo despite only having 31% possession doubled the number of attempts with eight shots. Although only 1 of the eight shots was on goal,  FIVE Tottenham blocks hid the fact that Zagreb was getting looks and lots of them, despite not having much of the ball.

Tottenham did have a couple of moves early but that was it

Just under 10 minutes into the match the first real chance came after Dele Alli won the second ball following an Eric Dier longball. Dele then combined with Harry Kane who played Dele in. Unfortunately, Dele tried to hit the ball first-time as it came back from Kane and whiffed, letting the chance go by.

Just a few minutes late, Harry Kane was in space on the left – there was tons of space on the left for Spurs – but his cross was not met by either Erik Lamela or Dele in the box. Even that play was a bit lucky in the build-up as Spurs quickly got back a poor pass from Ben Davies.

Ultimately, there were a lot more poor passes and lazy balls from Tottenham as the game wore on and Spurs were content to gradually concede the momentum to Dinamo. By half-time it was Tottenham who was lucky to have not conceded as a lucky bounce for Majer led to a shot that beat Hugo Lloris, but not the pole.

In the second half, the balls that were bouncing for Spurs stopped as Tottenham conceded possession and eventually the game.