Champions League hits and misses: Rodrigo Bentancur drags Spurs into Champions League knockout stages

Spurs nearly masters of own downfall

They say the road to success is always under construction. You have to tackle adversity in order to achieve greatness. Yet as Tottenham’s players shuffled dejectedly down the tunnel at the halfway point in southern France, it looked awfully like Spurs’ misfortune was going to be Marseille’s ultimate gain.

Manager Antonio Conte was consigned to the stands, Heung-Min Son had been forced off with a facial injury and they had conceded yet another poor first-half goal. Spurs were heading out. They failed to make a single touch in Marseille’s penalty area during the first 45 minutes – almost as if they had forgotten where the goal was entirely. It was all unravelling before Conte’s eyes, and he was powerless to stop it.

Image: Rodrigo Bentancur shone again as Tottenham won in Marseille

Tuesday’s Group D conclusion was a wild ride. The writing was on the wall for Spurs, but for a spirited second-half display which saw Rodrigo Bentancur drag his side kicking and screaming over the finish line.

The Spurs fans sing about him being the reason they are playing on Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s this season. Well, he remains that reason.

Staring elimination square in the face, the Uruguayan dug deep, taking up a position in a more advanced area in support of Harry Kane and Lucas Moura. It worked. They ditched the nervy demeanour and began to take the game to their hosts.

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Harry Kane believes Tottenham showed great character after they came from behind to beat Marseille and finish top of their Champions League group

Spurs’ secret weapon, set-piece coach Gianni Vio, once again earned his keep as Ivan Perisic’s free-kick was nodded in by Clement Lenglet to spark the comeback.

“Tottenham did very well in the second half but when you get to the last 16 you can’t keep giving teams head starts. It will catch up with you,” Sky Sports’ Paul Merson concluded. We’ll have to wait until the New Year to see if Merson’s warning will indeed be heeded.Laura Hunter

Liverpool show steel to tame the Napoli beast

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Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp believes his side reacted well after their defeat to Leeds by beating Napoli 2-0 in the Champions League

Trying to articulate and intelligently dissect where it has all gone wrong for Liverpool this season has made many heads explode in recent weeks. How can a team go from beating Manchester City to losing two games on the spin to Nottingham Forest and Leeds?

Is it fatigue? Is it due to a lack of investment? Could it quite possibly be the manager?

Mere mortals like us should probably just listen to Jurgen Klopp. He believes it’s all about how secure and aggressive they are in being able to stop opposition attackers overloading their defensive line. In a word, it’s all about Liverpool being “compact”. It’s a word he used multiple times in his post-match assessment of their 2-0 win over Napoli. Yes, the game was a bit of a dead-rubber but Liverpool should take massive kudos from being able to keep a clean sheet against such a potent attacking side that had won their last 13 matches across all competitions, scoring 39 goals in the process. At Anfield, they were restricted to an expected goals tally of just 0.43 with Alisson having to only deal with two pretty tame efforts on his goal.

As Klopp referenced, Liverpool were more of a cohesive unit, especially in midfield where Thiago and especially James Milner, before he departed with a head injury on 47 minutes, made it very difficult for Napoli to get their creative forces into dangerous positions. And when you keep it tight at the back, it only takes one moment to win a game and Liverpool’s prowess at set-pieces came to the fore yet again to score the two goals.

This type of steady, compact football philosophy may not be the Klopp way but for now until the World Cup break, it looks like Liverpool’s best way of picking up results.Lewis Jones

Rangers end dismal campaign with unwanted record Image: Rangers lost all their Champions League matches

It was a first Champions League campaign in 12 years for Rangers and it was certainly one to forget.

Time and time again the Ibrox side were punished by Europe’s elite as they became the first Scottish club to lose all six of their group matches.

A 3-1 defeat to Ajax also left them with the unwanted record of the worst campaign in the history of the competition.

No points, 21 goals conceded and just one scored.

It does not make good reading for Rangers and it is important they learn from their struggles against the ruthless teams in Europe’s elite competition.

Image: Giovanni van Bronckhorst led Rangers to the Europa League final last season

These results have had a knock-on effect domestically with the players’ confidence taking a hit. Rangers are four points behind Celtic in the Scottish Premiership title race and the fans will demand success there and in the cups to salvage their season.

There is no doubt there is increasing pressure on manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst – just how much time does he have to turn things around?Alison Conroy