A sensation in the Europa League: Spurs eliminated!

Tottenham season is falling apart. The Spurs have been eliminated from the Europa League, after losing the second leg against Dinamo Zagreb 3-0. This is by far the biggest surprise of this year’s competition. To be fair, Dinamo Zagreb plays in the European competitions regularly and they are a decent side, but after winning the first leg 2-0, and with the starts which they have, the Spurs had to go through to the next round, no excuses.

There was no controversy in this match, no VAR decisions, nothing for Mourinho to complain about, it was just poor, terrible Spurs play against the spirited Dinamo side, who believed, and „Fortune favors the bold“, as the old Latin proverb says. Spurs have been unstable all season in the Premier League, and it was only Mourinho’s big contract that kept him on the bench, and this result is the new low for the Portuguese. When pressed about the possibility that the Spurs don’t qualify for the Champions League (which is a reality at the moment), Mourinho always said that they might win the Europa League and qualify from there. Now, he is left with only Europa League. Again. Unacceptable for such a big club.

Dinamo Zagreb have lost just one of their last 16 European home games and they continued their great statistic tonight as well, mainly because of Orisic’s hat-trick and some fantastic saves from goalkeeper Livakovic. Dinamo were shocked by the news that their head coach Zoran Mamic had to resign since he was sentenced to a four-year prison sentence for fraud, and assistant Damir Krznar was promoted as a caretaker manager. However, Spur's lethargic play and unwillingness to kill the game in the first half and rest some first-team players resulted in Dinamo’s attacking play. It wasn’t like the Croats had too many opportunities, but Majer should have scored in the 35th minute. Lloris was already beaten, but the ball just went near the post. On the other side, the pale Spurs had a great chance in the dying minutes of the first half, but keeper Livakovic denied Kane.

The first half was best described by this tweet:

And since Spurs continued to look uninterested in the second half, the Croats pushed more and more and the goal came soon after. And it was a beautiful volley from Orsic in the 63rd minute.

The Spurs suddenly were in an uncomfortable situation and Dinamo continued to push for the second goal and overtime. Lo Celso had a chance as soon as he came in, but Livankovic was ready. And then came the second goal from Orisic.

Suddenly, Spurs woke up, and Kane should have finished the game in the 85th minute but Theophile-Catherine cleared the ball off the line.

The first overtime was no so interesting since the home team was a bit tired after attacking for almost 90 minutes, but Mourinho’s men didn’t take advantage of that, and Bale’s shot, which was just wide was the only interesting thing. But as soon as the second overtime began, Orsic sealed Spurs with his third goal of the match.

Spurs finally showed some spirit and soon it was drama in front of Dinamo’s goal, but the quiet hero of the match, goalkeeper Livakovic saved Bale’s shot, and then made an even better effort after Kane’s shot. That was also the last chance of the game, which Spurs lost, ending their hope for at least one trophy because it is hard to believe that they will be able to win the Carabao Cup against Manchester City. Just terrible.

EUROPA LEAGUE

Round of 16, second leg

Thursday

Arsenal – Olympiacos 0-1 (0-0) /first leg 3-1/

/El Arabi 51/

Dinamo Zagreb – Tottenham 3-0 (0-0) AET /first leg 0-2/

/Orsic 62, 82, 106/

Molde – Granada 2-1(1-0) /first leg 0-2/

/Vallejo 29(og), Hestad 90+2 - Soldado 75/

Shakhtar Donetsk - AS Roma 1-2(0-0) /first leg 0-3/

/Moraes 59 – Mayoral 48,72/

23.00: AC Milan - Manchester United /first leg 1-1/

23.00: Rangers - Slavia Prague /first leg 1-1/

23.00: Villareal - Dynamo Kyiv /first leg 2-0/

23.00: Young Boys - Ajax /first leg 0-3/