Atletico Madrid (Spain) (Away) 10.03.2026

On a pitch soaked by Spanish rain and with rumours abounding that the home side keep it that way, Tottenham slipped and slid to defeat with the unenviable sight of seeing Toni Kinsky being hooked off after 17 minutes, having played a part in two of the three goals that had gone into his net.  With it being a two-legged affair, there might be a glimmer of hope, but as Ange said, “the light at the end of the tunnel is just a train coming the other way.” 

It was truly a night to forget, with five yellow cards (in a one-eyed refereeing performance as Atleti got away with none when a number of their players were at risk of missing the second leg if they got a second yellow) five goals against and two players banging their heads together at the end that probably rules them out of the weekend’s match at Liverpool.  It really was a case of whatever could go wrong, did go wrong.

And it looked so promising in the first minute, as Mathys Tel got a cross in from the left wing that Oblak fumbled, but managed to claim and Spurs targeted the Atletic right side of the defence.  However, in the fourth minute Djed Spence got booked  for a challenge on Griezmann and a couple of minutes later we were behind.  What looked like a safe situation suddenly proved not to be as Toni Kinsky slipped when attempting a pass out from his area and presented the ball to Lookman, who squared it to Alvarez, who squared it to Llorente, who powerfully side-footed the ball past Kinsky from 10 yards out. 

So 0-1 down in six minutes and the response was good, with Porro playing the ball into Archie Gray to lay it off for Tel to shoot, but Oblak saved it in the centre of his goal.  Micky van de Ven won a header to a loose ball forward and it landed at Richarlison’s feet just outside the box, but he slipped as he got a shot away on the turn and it went too high.   Sod’s Law says that the tables would be turned and so it proved, with a through ball unable to be cut out as Micky slipped, with the ball finding its way straight to Griezmann who beat Kinsky with his shot to make it 2-0 in the 14th minute.

That became 3-0 in the 15th minute, as Kinsky tried to play a first time pass and managed to kick the ball against his standing foot, playing the ball directly to Alvarez who had an empty net to put the ball into.  Tudor had failed in his change of keeper and brought Kinsky off to be replaced by Guglielmo Vicario.  The keeper walked off without a sideways glance from the interim manager, with only his colleagues on the bench to give him some solace as he headed straight down the tunnel.  It all added up to an unwholesome scene that did nothing for the togetherness of the squad nor for the confidence in what is going on for the fans.  

The first thing that Vicario had to do was deal with a free-kick given for a soft challenge that was made the most of.  He made a fine save, pushing the ball up in the air after it had come off Pape Matar Sarr’s head but the ball was headed in by Le Normand despite the keeper’s best efforts to try to keep it out, it did cross the line and it was 0-4 in the 22nd minute.

While the first three goals had been down to errors, the fourth was unfortunate, although the Spurs reaction to Vic’s save was slow, the side had moved the ball forward well a few times and when the ball was passed down the left to Richi, he came inside and passed across box to Porro.  His touch took the ball away from Ruggieri and he fired a shot low past Oblak to make it 1-4 just three minutes after conceding for the fourth time.

The goal seemed to inspire Tottenham, with Kolo Muani chasing down a long ball, getting ahead of Hancko when he looked second favourite.  When the free-kick came in, it was headed at goal by Richi, but Oblak saves low in front of the line, but the ref had spotted an infringement and a free-kick was given.

Vicario was being kept busy as the score-line could have got worse.  Just after the half hour, Lookman got through into the penalty area on the left and the Spurs keeper blocked his shot at his near post with his knee and from the resulting corner, Alvarez had an effort saved low down after the corner had been cleared.  Two minutes later it was Spurs who might have scored.  Some good work between Tel and Sarr sees Pape shoot and the ball was blocked for corner.  Played long to beyond the far post, it picked out Romero but his header hit the outside of the post when putting it back across goal might have been a better option. 

And things might have got a lot worse with 39 minutes on the clock, as Micky slammed into a tackle on the edge of the box that got the ball, but his follow through caught Hancko on the ankle.  It looked bad and either Micky is trying too hard or he has already checked out and doesn’t consider the consequences of his actions, as he could easily have been sent off.  VAR cleared the challenge and Tottenham had a free-kick on halfway for a shove on Richi.  When it was cleared, Kevin Danso went in to tackle Ruggieri, slipped and caught the Atletic defender.  A free-kick all day long, but if the ref had read the play, he would have realised was unintentional.  The state of the pitch was really dangerous, as it could have resulted in a bad injury for the home player, but also for Danso, whose ankle buckled as he slipped.

Half-time couldn’t come soon enough, with Ruggieri getting down the left to pull a pass back for Llorente, who really should have done better than shoot wide from 12 yards out in the centre of the penalty area.  It was last notable action of the first half and you wondered what Tudor could say to the team in the dressing room, but you could hazard a guess that it wouldn’t be anything that would turn this disaster around.

The second half just went to demonstrate Tottenham’s luck at the moment.  In the 55th minute, Spurs worked a short corner and the cross inot the box was met by Richarlison and his header was kept out very well by Oblak diving to his left.  13 seconds later the ball was in the Spurs net, as Griezman flicked the clearance on for Alvarez to run away from Porro from halfway and slot past Vicario to his right. Porro was running in treacle and with Spurs caught with people up field for the corner, they were exposed at the back.

A few minutes later Sarr picks off a pass and shoots wide from outside box. and around the hour, Richi and Gray picked up yellow cards before a long throw into the box went through to Solanke from a flick on at the near post, but it hit the striker and ran on to Oblak.  19 minutes from the end, Romero slipped (that pitch again) as Griezman looked for Alvarez, but recovered to knock the ball on to Danso and as Spurs looked to move upfield, Palhinha gets pulled down but nothing doing with the ref, which was a surprise when Archie got a yellow for the same thing.

We pulled another goal back in the 76th minute, when Oblak passed straight to Porro who put a first-time ball into Solanke’s feet and he smashed the ball past Oblak.  It seemed that the poor decision-making was catching.

• Tottenham lost their sixth consecutive match in all competitions for the first time in the club’s history.
• Igor Tudor became the first Tottenham manager to lose all of his first four matches in charge.
• This was the fifth game running that Spurs have conceded two or more goals – another first in the club’s history.