Spurs threw away a 2-1 lead right at the end against Roma, with Mats Hummels scoring in added time to claim a valuable point for a crisis-ridden Giallorossi.
The hosts scored early through a Heung-Min Son penalty, but control of the game wasn’t maintained. It didn’t take long for Roma to equalise through Evan Ndicka, and both sides could’ve scored more before Brennan Johnson restored the lead.
Chances continued to be squandered until the very end, when Hummels made amends for his early error to equalise at the death.
As it happened
There might not be another club in Europe more bizarre than Roma. 12th in Serie A, on the brink in the Europa League and on their third manager of the season, all on the back of a seemingly excellent transfer window. The reasons behind the mess are complex and plentiful, but the result has been a side which has no discernible identity and as many holes on the pitch as players.
Against a Spurs side which is as inconsistent as they come, they were no different. Insistent on a high line and with a midfield pair which offered no protection to their back three, the results were predictable; whenever the hosts attacked Roma were left exposed, defenders scrambling to prevent inevitable chances.
They couldn’t prevent Spurs’ first big chance, though. In fact, they created it themselves.
Spurs had broken into the box. Roma, their high line already left in the dust, rushed to win the ball back. In the melee was Mats Hummels, the veteran making his first start for the club he joined in September, attempting to nick the ball off Pape Matar Sarr. In his haste, he missed the ball altogether and smashed into the midfielder.
Initially, referee Glenn Nyberg waved for play to continue. Then he had a change of heart; then VAR told him to go to the screen, upon which the penalty was a surety. It was Heung-Min Son to take, and he made no mistake, slotting it to Mile Svilar’s left.
Embed from Getty ImagesIt was this early – only in the fifth minute – that Spurs looked like they’d run away with it. They’d already uncovered Roma’s weakness; they would surely exploit it; but they didn’t.
Instead, the visitors grew into game. On 20 minutes, Roma had a free kick from the byline. Paulo Dybala whipped it into the box with targets aplenty to choose from. The lucky man was Evan Ndicka, rising highest above Dominic Solanke to loop a brilliant header over Fraser Forster, off the bar and into the back of the net. Well, it looked like a header; really, it was his shoulder, but the result was the same: the Giallorossi were level.
They were still light at the back, they were still far from perfect, but they deserved their goal. Three minutes later, they went one better – or so they thought.
Dybala was the creator again, chipping a ball into the box with his first touch for Stefan El Shaarawy to run onto. He could – maybe should – have taken a touch, but he chose not to, volleying a venomous strike into the bottom corner. They celebrated; they were in front. But then their elation was deflated. He was a foot offside, and level it remained.
This was end-to-end football. It was the kind of first half that neutrals love, but managers hate. Neither side was in control, and both keepers were tested constantly. It was Svilar who would be forced into action next, making an incredible save to deny Solanke after Angeliño denied Brennan Johnson on the line.
Just after the half hour mark, though, Spurs would beat the Belgian. Dejan Kulusevski made Hummels’ evening even worse, twisting him in knots before playing the ball to the penalty spot. Angeliño was a tad late in his recovery run, allowing Johnson to slot the ball into the bottom corner. This time, Svilar couldn’t even move.
Embed from Getty ImagesNot even two minutes later, two should’ve become three, Kulusevski hitting the post and Son launching the rebound over the bar. You could travel far and wide across Europe this season and you’d likely not see a more frantic, enjoyable first half.
Having made no louder an impact than a church mouse in the first half, Artem Dovbyk would announce himself in the second – just not quite in the way he’d hoped.
In the 54th minute, the ball was in the back of the net again, Manu Koné tapping a squared ball from his striker into an empty net. He didn’t even have time to celebrate before the linesman’s flag was raised, though, with the Ukrainian offside when he played the pass. As long as he learned from the mistake, he’d start to cause issues.
Not a minute later, he proved that lesson had gone unheeded. This time it was him bundling the ball home, but once more it was he who had strayed offside. A couple of minutes to forget for a man who scored the most goals in La Liga last season.
Between the hour-mark and the 61st minute, Pedro Porro hit both crossbars, first deflecting an Angeliño volley and then crashing a free-kick onto the woodwork.
If it sounds hectic, it was. This was a game in which neither side neither had any control whatsoever. Perfect for the viewer; a nightmare for Ange Postecoglu and Claudio Ranieri.
The game could’ve gone anywhere. Spurs could’ve been 4-1 up, Roma could’ve been in the lead, and yet in the end it all ended with neither of those the result.
Regulation time was over. Five minutes had been added on, and Roma were heading goalwards once more, this their final hurrah. Gianluca Mancini, of all people, would be the man to test Forster, cleanly striking a volley towards the top corner which was expertly saved to the shock of the centre half, the Spurs faithful, and everyone else watching the game.
But it went out for a corner, and it would undo Spurs right at the end. The ball fell for Angeliño, the wingback involved in everything at both ends, who fired a ball into the six-yard box, hoping someone would tap it home.
No one would tap it home. Instead, Hummels – the man who’d given Roma a mountain to climb an hour and a half earlier – put everything behind a strike which cannoned into the top corner. Forster had left his goal unguarded. He didn’t need to fire it as hard as he did, but it didn’t matter: Roma had clawed a point right at the very end.
Embed from Getty ImagesThis game was, for want of a better and more sophisticated word, fun. Both teams could’ve won. Depending on your view of things, both teams should have won. To that end, a draw was the fairest of fair results – much to the chagrin of both teams.
The lineups
TOT: Forster; Gray, Davies, Drăgușin, Porro; Johnson, Bentancur, Sarr; Son, Solanke, Kulusevski
ROM: Svilar; Ndicka, Hummels, Mancini; Angeliño, Koné, Paredes, Çelik; El Shaarawy, Dybala; Dovbyk