Tottenham end Champions League on a high note, but with ultimate disappointment

Tottenham ended their Champions League run with a win over CSKA Moscow, but it was too little, too late.

Dele Alli of Tottenham goes for possession during the club's Champions League match with CSKA Moscow at Wembley in London on December 7, 2016. Will Oliver / EPA

It was a case of too little, too late.

Wednesday’s 3-1 triumph over CSKA Moscow saw Tottenham Hotspur end their Uefa Champions League campaign on a high, but in reality this victory — given to them by strikes from Dele Alli, Harry Kane an Igor Akinfeev own goal — will simply exacerbate fans’ frustrations about the results which went before.

When the draw for the group stage of this year’s competition was made back in August, Mauricio Pochettino and his players would have been reasonably confident about their chances of advancing to the knockout rounds.

Meetings with Monaco, Bayer Leverkusen and CSKA were never going to be easy, but the absence from Group E of a European powerhouse certainly seemed to make things more straightforward in Tottenham’s first Champions League appearance since Harry Redknapp’s men reached the quarter-finals in 2010/11.

Things did not go to plan. A 2-1 loss to Monaco in match day one set the tone for the remainder of the campaign, as Tottenham struggled to get going against a team they had thrashed 4-1 in the Europa League just nine months previously.

That reverse was followed by a narrow 1-0 win over CSKA in Russia, before just one point was taken from back-to-back games against Leverkusen. That left Tottenham on the brink, with another 2-1 success for Monaco at the Stade Louis II knocking them out of the tournament last month.

It is impossible to say that last term’s Premier League title challengers deserved anything more. Tottenham were frequently flat and feeble, devoid of ideas in an attacking sense and far too sloppy in a defensive one.

They had Hugo Lloris to thank for keeping their hopes alive in matches against Leverkusen and Monaco, and a return of only two non-penalty goals in their first five outings demonstrated how difficult they found it to create clear-cut chances against quality opposition. Of even more concern was the complete lack of energy and intensity, the like of which epitomises Tottenham’s best domestic performances.

Pochettino, moreover, was guilty of making some puzzling selections — none more so than his curious decision to leave Jan Vertonghen on the bench when all three points were needed against Monaco a two weeks ago — while it is also hard to escape the feeling that the temporary relocation to Wembley played a part in Tottenham’s underperformance.

Uefa regulations meant they were unable to stage matches at White Hart Lane because of continuing building work on the site — the club’s new ground is set to open in 2018 — with the move across north London diluting their home advantage. While that was not the biggest factor in their failings, the lack of familiarity may have been somewhat responsible for their lethargic showings at Wembley.

All in all, it is a great shame that Tottenham were unable to make any sort of impression on a competition they fought so hard to be a part of last season.

A top-four finish remains the objective in the Premier League this time around, with Tottenham aiming to establish themselves as perennial qualifiers for the Champions League. As the last few months have shown, though, there is still plenty of work to be done before they can consider themselves a member of Europe’s elite.

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