Galatasaray (Turkey) (Away) 07.11.2024

Injury and resting player brought a lot of changes to the side, but they really did play like a team of strangers, with passes lacking enough weight to reach it’s intended target or being loose and going straight to a Gala player.  It proved to be a tough watch as the performance was not the type that we have seen so far this season.  Without Romero, van de Ven, Richarlison, Werner and Moore, there were gaps in the side to be filled and in the feisty atmosphere of the Rams Park, Spurs wilted and Galatasaray showed how they have a top class finished in Osimhen, although he should have scored more than the two he came away with.

Having been reasonably comfortable for the first five minutes, a Gala free-kick was headed out by Archie Gray to Yunus 20 yards out and the ball sat up for him to hit a shot that caught Fraser Forster out as it was taken early and was well placed across him from the left corner of the box to the opposite top corner.  It was struck well enough that it was even out of the massive reach of Forster and was just another worldie that we had scored against us in Europe over the last few campaigns.  We do well when we go behind, but this was a goal that came very early and there was a fervent crowd behind the home team.

Things almost got worse straight away as a short back-pass saw Osimhen race in to try and intercept, as Forster cleared the ball away, with the Nigerian staying down and the manager irate at the fourth official.  As it turned out the ball was won before Osimhen came in, but Tottenham were regularly passing the ball straight to the maroon and orange shirts, although there was little more for Forster to do in this period of the game.  When Son was tackled on the left wing, Archie Gray picked up possession to curl a fine pass into the right hand side of the box.  He had seen Brennan Johnson’s run and the Welshman’s first time volley back across goal to Will Lankshear who poked the ball into the roof of the net from a couple of yards out.  It was a fantastic move and a great moment for the young striker to score his first senior goal for the club. It silenced the home crowd immediately.

It took a while for Galatasaray to recover, by which time they were nearly behind, when a repeat move of the Spurs goal nearly came off, but Johnson was offside.  It looked as though the home team would go ahead when Osimhen was slipped through into the left side of the area and tried to slide a low shot to Forster’s left, but the keeper got down quickly and blocked the shot with the follow-up effort from Mertens fired just wide of Forster’s right-hand post. Osimhen did find the back of the net on the half hour, sliding the ball past the Spurs keeper, but he had made his move a little too early and was clearly offside. However, when Dragusin got closed by two players 25 yards from his own goal, it left Osimhen in the clear and this time he made no mistake, toe-poking the ball right-footed to Forster’s left into the bottom corner with 31 minutes on the clock.

As well as being the player caught in possession, Dragusin got booked for a foul on Icardi when he tried to win it back. The Turkish team’s players were going down at every opportunity to try to get the crowd to pressurise the officials into making a decision in their favour and there was a look by VAR on one Bissouma tackle, but it was deemed OK. The concession of possession was killing Spurs, who were bringing pressure on themselves, but fortunately,  Galatasaray couldn’t fashion many clear-cut chances from it. Dragusin’s pass forward was intercepted and the ball was quickly moved right to Osimhen, who was in the right corner of the area, but Forster was fast out and blocked the shot well. Once more though, he was not to be denied and when a cross from the right was played in, he was on the edge of the six-yard box to cushion a left foot volley wide of Forster’s reach to make it 3-1 seven minutes after their second goal.

The passes Spurs were making were under-hit and the movement off the ball restricted the ability to work the ball forward. Playing the ball out from the back was particularly poor and the ball kept coming back towards the Tottenham goal.

With Kulusevski and Bentancur coming on at halftime for Johnson and Son, it smacked of damage limitation and there could have been four goals for the home side inside the first five minutes after the restart. Icardi had two chances, the second a clear shooting opportunity that he struck inches over the bar, then Forster let a seemingly harmless free-kick slip between his hands in a crowded penalty area and only a couple of good blocks stopped any addition to the score. Then Dragusin got a head to a volley from Yunus, who hit it first time when receiving it from a corner, with the Romanian diverting it just inches wide of the post.

Osimhen had a great chance to seal his hat-trick when a cross picked him out just inside the box, but he powered his header wide of the left hand angle of Forster’s goal and when a low ball back to Osimhen, Kulusevski got around the striker and his poked shot was saved by Forster’s legs.

In the 58th minute, Spurs did manage to play out and Porro hit Lankshear with a good forward ball, that he played right to Kulusevski, taking the return but unable to get much power after the ball got under his feet inside the box. Unfortunately, the next time the ball was played up to him, he got knocked over and went after the ball, fouling Sara and receiving a second yellow card after an earlier one for grappling with Ayhan in the 53rd minute.

All the pressure was on the Tottenham goal, with a shot from Yilmaz pushed out by Forster, but only in front of goal and it was Dragusin who was there again, this time just knocking it away from Torreira for a corner. From that Forster made a really good stop when it dropped for Yunus to hammer a half-volley at goal and the keeper got this one a long way from goal.

Spurs got forward and when Kulusevski went for Bergvall’s return pass he was
charged into by Bardacki and when down holding his shoulder, with Ange deciding to
replace Maddison and Bergvall, with Sarr and Solanke making their way off the
bench.

Spurs had some possession in the top third, with Bentancur playing the ball right to Kulusevski, who prodded it into the box, where Porro had a free run. With time to look up, he played the ball to Solanke’s near post run that lost Torreira and Sanchez and he knocked the ball into the net from a yard out by dragging it behind his standing leg with his right foot. So, down to ten men and back to 3-2, there was still 20 minutes left.

When Spurs got the ball halfway up the pitch, they were still playing passes to short for team-mates to receive and there were chances for Galatasaray with the ball coming into the box too often. When it did come in from Ziyech to Icardi, the slotted the ball low past Forster’s right, but he had moved offside and that came just after Solanke was one-on-one on the edge of the home penalty area, but he was blocked off as he tried to get around the defender. Yunus then popped up on the left to take a pass from Icardi that he dragged across the face of goal before going down with cramp. He got minutes of treatment, before the home side took him and Osimhen off, then Icardi took a knock on his knee as he closed Forster down and there was
four more minutes before he was carried off with a problem with his knee.

A loose Galatasaray pass in the centre circle provided Sarr with the ball and with Kulusevsksi in space, he played it straight to a maroon and orange shirt. There was then a stop when Bentancur beat Batshuayi to the ball, but planted it straight into Pedro’s face. If anything, Spurs looked the stronger of the two sides at the end, but having numbers on their side Galatasaray could squeeze Tottenham out or pick off passes with more men to fill the space. A ball through for Solanke to chase forced the keeper to rush fifteen yards outside his box to head clear, only straight to Kulusevski, who tried to knock it into the unguarded net, but got it wrong and it went a long way wide.

The defeat was our first in the competition this season, but with four of the eight games played, it may not have a huge impact on our eventual finish, unless we produce many more performances like this.  It was always going to be a tough ask, even before the injuries, with the home side in good form in their own league and having a couple of top players in their team.  However, the fact that we battled back, with Bentancur playing a big part of that with great energy covering for the missing Lankshear, looking the more likely to score towards the end, speaks volumes for the never-say-die attitude of the team.  However, they have to stop putting themselves in the position where they have to make a come-back.  

There were three teenager sin the side from the start and while Lankshear had his high and low, Lucas Bergvall found it hard to make things happen, but Archie Gray played very well, sticking to his defensive work and also involved in the Spurs goal.  Davies and Dragusin were nervous in passing the ball out from the back, while Porro struggled with the Galatasaray players on his side of the pitch, but did make a perceptive underlapping run to create Solanke’s goal. 

Roma are next up and will be looking to take a big scalp as their season has gone from bad to worse, so a more rigid defensive display will be needed to build on.

Stanford Rivers

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