PSV supporters had plenty of candidates to boo as Tottenham arrived at the Philips Stadion looking to arrest their Champions League slump.
Included in Mauricio Pochettino’s starting line-up were three players with Ajax connections. Toby Alderweireld and Davinson Sanchez formed the central defensive partnership with another ex-Ajax star Jan Vertonghen out injured, while Christian Eriksen was back to pull the strings between midfield and attack.
While the PSV vs Ajax rivalry is not as hostile as Feyenoord vs Ajax – known in these parts as De Klassieker – the home faithful will have been delighted nevertheless, to see two of Spurs’ ex-Ajax contingent combine to gift them the opening goal of the game.
An undercooked Sanchez pass put Alderweireld under pressure but the Belgian took too long to release his back-pass to Hugo Lloris with the livewire Mexican Hirving ‘Chucky’ Lozano seizing upon his indecision and punishing him emphatically, albeit with the aid of a wicked deflection off the Belgian as he attempted to recover his mistake.
Mixed night for ex-Ajax contingent
It looked as if the pair had made amends when Alderweireld’s header was palmed into the path of Sanchez to score into an empty net before Spurs were bewilderingly denied their equaliser after Harry Kane was deemed to be interfering with play from an offside position. That none of PSV’s players thought to protest, suggested that he wasn’t.
Despite the slack concession of the game’s first goal and the indignance of having a legitimate one of their own chalked off, Spurs regrouped and regained control of the game with their third former Ajax star Eriksen central to all of their positive play.
PSV’s left flank had looked vulnerable from the very start of the game with summer recruit from Manchester City Angelino suffering a torrid time at the hands of Lucas Moura – who pirouetted around him with a balletic turn that Zinedine Zidane would have been proud of – and in particular, Kieran Trippier who rampaged forward at the Spaniard’s invitation.
It was Trippier who registered the assist for Lucas Moura’s first strike since August, yet it was Eriksen who was the true architect of the goal, dissecting the PSV backline with an inch-perfect slide-rule pass that was begging Trippier to charge onto and slide across goal. Angelino, as he did for the most of the night, almost got there.
20/20 vision
The accuracy and weight of Eriksen’s ‘pre-assist’ not to mention his 20/20 vision to spot the opportunity in the first place, is exactly what Spurs have been missing during his month out on the sidelines with an abdominal injury. Quite simply, there is nobody else in Spurs’ squad that can do what Eriksen can.
Shortly after the interval, Eriksen made his second decisive contribution of the game, this time registering an assist for himself with a mind-bogglingly brilliant cross, this time from the left wing and this time with his supposedly weaker left foot.
After playing a neat give-and-go with Son Heung-Min by the touchline, Eriksen looked up, surveyed his options and flighted a cross to the back post where Kane was lurking to head into the ground and beyond Jeroen Zoet in goal.
People have been quick to highlight Kane’s (relative) lack of goals of late. Yet shorn of the playmaking abilities for Eriksen for his club and someone of a similar ilk for his country, Kane has had to drop deeper and act as a No.10 himself in order to release speedy forwards alongside him such as Lucas, Raheem Sterling and Marcus Rashford.
Telepathic understanding with Kane
With Eriksen back in the side and on this evidence, back in form, Kane can now re-focus his attention on scoring goals. Spurs will need their most inventive player and their most clinical to maintain the level of telepathy they demonstrated for the second goal in Eindhoven moving forward.
Ultimately, Eriksen’s moment of brilliance was swallowed up by another Hugo Lloris gaffe in a big game. The Frenchman delivered a man-of-the-match display in his last game against West Ham on Saturday, but as is often the life of goalkeeper he has gone very quickly from hero to zero.
Lloris’ rush-of-blood decision to career out of his goal and send Lozano flying with 12 minutes to go resulted in referee Slavko Vincic brandishing a red card in his direction. Shortly afterwards, Luuk De Jong impudently flicked a finish beyond his replacement Michel Vorm and Spurs had to settle for a point that could mean very little.
As the dust settles, question marks over Spurs’ mental fragility and game management will resurface. Their hopes of progression from Group B now dangle by the proverbial thread, but if there is one crumb of comfort, at least their Danish magician is back.
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