AS Roma (Italy) Home 28.11.2024

Chilly, but dry, the conditions were pretty good and the Roma section of the crowd were noisy in a very organised display of scarf work, while Spurs had their singing section in operation for the first time (not entirely effective to tell the truth and singing some songs the club would probably not approve of !), along with some new branded flags sporadically dotted around, but not enough to have made much of an impact.

With a number of injuries, Spurs had a lot of teenagers on the bench and despite the discussions on the train to the ground about who would replace Vicario, Fraser Forster was always going to play in this match and probably the majority of them while Vic is on the bench.  If Tottenham are already in the top eight places in the Europa League table with games in hand, Whiteman and Austin may get an opportunity, as they have had little or no first team action outside of friendlies.  As it was, the first eleven was fairly strong with all of them established players this season, with a lot of familiar names in the Roma line-up too suggesting that Claudio Ranieri was going to take this competition seriously although they are languishing low down in the play-off positions at the moment.

No sooner had the game started than Mat Hummels got to Pape Matar Sarr late as he broke in the box to get on the end of Pedro Porro’s pull back from the right wing.  The referee did not give anything, but after a lengthy VAR review the referee was advised to go to the monitor and came away pointing to the spot.  So, 130 seconds in Hummels had conceded a penalty on his first start for the club and the ref had done well to let play continue after Son had been pulled over by Mancini.  The Roma keeper tried to delay things by not handing the ball over, but when Sonny stepped up to take the spot-kick, his slow run up sent Svilar the wrong way and the ball nestled in  the keeper’s bottom left hand corner.  A great start and unusual that we hadn’t gone behind at home for a change !  

Almost immediately, El Sharaawy got away down the left and crossed for Dybala to volley, but he mis-hit it well wide from the edge of the area. Kone went down after a ball up the line from Porro hit him and he rolled off the pitch before rolling back on for the game to be stopped. Dybala and Angelino played a well-worked one-two from a corner when the Argentine played it to the edge of the D and Angelino’s volley at goal went straight back to the corner taker who was offside. Dybala then tried to chip Forster from 40 yards, but the ball drifted wide and then Son made a run in off the left to slip a pass to his right to Kulusevski in the box, but the ball just got away from him.

Dybala was looking lively and a ball played outside the left back slot saw him run into the box, where his shot from a tight angle was stopped by Forster’s leg and Fraser got up quickly to juggle the ball away from Dybala a couple of times. His hurried roll out saw the ball won by Roma and then straight after we got the ball back, a ball up to Solanke was picked off by Hummels. A foul on Kone by Dragusin on the Roma left wing gave Dybala the opportunity to cross and Ndicka won the ball in the middle of the area, coming off his back and looping in at the far post. The foul had been a little unnecessary and Spurs had paid for it.

That was in the 20th minute and two minutes later, Dybala dinked a little ball over the Spurs back line to El Shaarawy to volley low past Forster’s left from inside the 18 yard line. The VAR were busy again and ruled it out as the scorer was ahead of the last defender and so offside was given. It was a well-made chance and a stunning finish, but Spurs got away with it. Roma then got away with it with a ross in by Archie Gray won ahead of the keeper by Brennan Johnson, but the ball went up in the air and the Welshman was quick to react, drilling a shot at goal that Angelino stopped on the line with his hands across his chest, then Solanke tried an overhead kick from the rebound and Svilar pushed it away for a corner.

It was end-to-end stuff and Forster made a terrific save when Dybala twisted and turned just outside the box and hit a low shot to Fraser’s left and he got down really quickly to turn it away with the ball almost past him. Kulusevski picked up a booking for pushing Paredes over and the Roma player got one too for the initial foul on the Spurs winger. Pape won the ball 10 yards outside the Roma box and drove forward, but on his left foot, he failed to get enough power into his shot and Svilar got down behind it.

With 33 minutes gone, Sarr played a ball over the top to find Kulusevski’s run and he played it to around the penalty spot and with the ball along the turf, Brennan struck it left-footed coming in to put Tottenham back into the lead. Another well created goal and a clinical finish.

A minute later it could have been 3-1, as Ben Davies played a beautiful ball through the left hand channel for Dejan to run on into the box and squeezed a shot through Hummels legs and across the keeper but the ball hit the base of the post. The rebound came out into the middle of the area and Son was there, but blasted the ball over the bar much to the astonishment of most inside the stadium. He did get one on target when Porro’s shot was blocked and Son picked up the loose ball to the left of the goal, cut inside and curled a shot around a defender but Slivar managed to get his fingertips to it to  push it wide for a corner. A couple of minutes before half-time, Son and Kulusevski linked up twice to provide Dejan a chance to bend it looking for
the far post, but it went a foot wide.

The interval brought a Roma substitution with Soule coming on for his national team-mate Dybala and then, when Bentancur picked off a pass across the 18 yard line following a brave header by Porro on the six-yard line, Spurs were away. Four on two with Solanke playing the ball right to Kulusevski, he came inside and his shot was blocking, with Johnson wildly firing the loose ball over the top. With Son and Sarr to his left, perhaps Dom’s decision wasn’t the correct one in the end.

In the 54th minute, Soule slipped a pass through to Dobvyk, whose shot was going in but Kone made sure, but it was disallowed for the Ukrainian being offside. A minute later the Roma striker put the ball in the net again, just squeezing the ball in off Forster’s foot, but he had gone early again and it was still 2-1 to Spurs. As usual Mancini was in the referee’s face and you have to admire the Roma captain’s stamina for making the number of long runs he made to give his advice to the referee.

A low ball to the far post from Soule gave Angelino the chance to volley at goal and he was closer than in the first half, when the ball came back out off the bar off a deflection off Porro. It was another escape for Tottenham and when Ben Davies made a great run into the heart of the Roma defence, he was tripped by Ndicka five yards outside the area. Pedro Porro took it and the ball went over after grazing the top of the bar.

Spurs were good on the break and when Sarr played a ball down the left wing, the ball stayed in for Dominic to run forward, skip past Hummels leaving him on the floor, then played a ball across goal aiming for Johnson, but Paredes knocked it behind before it could get to Brennan.  There was a great chance for Roma when Angelino’s cross was blocked out to Kone, who side-footed a shot just six inches wide of Fraser’s right-hand post. Spurs’ pressing had dropped off and the team dropped deeper towards their own goal.  Keeping the ball up the other end would have helped, with Gray’s pass forward to
Maddison, just on as a sub, poked it on to Slanke, who shot from left of centre, but Slivar awkwardly pushed it wide.

Tottenham were giving the ball away too easily and Bentancur flew in to hit Salemaekers on the ankle, picking up a booking for it, with Ranieri wanting a red card, although a yellow was handed out to one of his coaches for dissent. Son sold Gray short with a pass outside him down the line, but Archie hassled Mancini and the ball came off him for a corner. The referee pointed for a goal-kick and only the intervention of the lineman on the other side of the pitch gave the correct decision !

Both sides were not passing well, but when Archie Gray was played away down the left wing by Werner, his cross to the near post was met by Solanke and his header from close range hit the bar, came out and hit him on the thigh and on the floor, he tried to scoop the ball in but couldn’t. Then there was a moment where Ndicka couldn’t play it back to his keeper, the keeper didn’t come to claim it and the ball was eventually kicked out for a throw-in. Then Werner’s cross was headed out by Ndicka, with no Spurs player near him, straight to Porro, who hit a first-time volley that grubbed along the floor with Slivar right behind it.  Archie was then in action at the other end, nudging the ball away from Soule as he looked to get a shot away in the box. Soon after, from a corner, the ball dropped and Hummels tried an overhead kick, but it went too high. Still the game ebbed and flowed, Bergvall’s cross-field ball gave Werner the opportunity to move into the box from wide left, but his shot to the near post was saved and then Kulusevski came in from the other flank and weaved through to have a shot that the keeper got down to.

A cross in from the right was heading for Porro and he tried to head it back to Forster, but Dubvyk was there and Fraser did well to block it at close range. Porro blocked a Angelino header for a corner, which brought another and with five minutes shown on the board, Soule head this one back into the middle of the box where a scissors kick from Mancini saw the ball flashing towards goal. Somehow, Forster reacted to get hands to it and get it over the bar. However, from the corner the ball went to the other side and Angelino drove a shot in from the left and Hummels put it in from inched out at the far post.  Coming 45 seconds into added time, there was little time left for a response.

It was an exiting, if ultimately frustrating game for Spurs, but against a Roma side who came out to play, they failed to control possession and failed to take their chances when they came.  Ben Davies and Radu Dragusin did well defensively and Archie Gray put in a solid performance, even though he was often left facing two men on his wing.  In midfield Pape did well pressing and winning possession, while Rodrigo Bentancur was his usual effective presence, running the ball around and tackling well (except for a couple of times) to try to stop Roma’s advances.  I feel a bit sorry for Dom.  He puts shift in every match and gets little supply to do what he does best … score goals, but his runs make space for others and Johnson is thriving on that.

So, another point, which should have been three, but three games left to get as many points as we can.  Glasgow Rangers will be up for it at Ibrox and then Elfsborg at home and Hoffenheim away, so, if we can manage games, we should be OK to progress and hopefully without going through the play-offs, which would mean extra games.

Purcell Cole

• Heung-Min Son made his 64th appearance in Europe for Spurs and that put him level fourth with Steve Perryman in the club’s appearance list.
• Son’s goal was his 25th in Europe for the club and he is second in the Spurs European goal-scorers list. 
• Ben Davies’ appearance in this match put him level with Hugo Lloris in second place in the European appearance list.