Tottenham Hotspur‘s nightmarish season continued with a Champions League hammering at the hands of Atletico Madrid. Spurs were four goals down after just 22 minutes – eventually succumbing to a 5-2 loss.
Goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky was brought in to replace the out-of-form Guglielmo Vicario in the starting lineup. But he was subbed off after just 14 minutes having made two huge errors allowing Atletico Madrid to race into a three-goal lead.
Dominic Solanke and Pedro Porro were able to find the net to make the scoreline more respectable. But two further Rojiblancos goals secured a comfortable lead for Diego Simeone’s men to take to north London.
In this article we’ll cover
Kinsky’s horror-show
Igor Tudor’s decision to sub Antonin after just 14 minutes was an admission of a mistake. One that has not only cost Tottenham any realistic chance of progressing to the quarter finals of the Champions League — but may just cost him his interim job in charge of the club after just four games.
In those 14 minutes, Spurs conceded three goals — two coming directly from huge mistakes from Kinsky. Steven Berghuis’ one error leading to a goal in his 45 minutes in the Champions League was unsurprisingly the worst record in the competition this season in terms of minutes per error leading to a goal. Until Kinsky made two such errors in just 14 minutes.
Kinsky completed just two passes in those 14 minutes and failed to make a single save. He also became the first goalkeeper to concede three times in the first 14 minutes of a Champions League knockout game.
Tottenham’s lack of discipline
Tottenham fielded their youngest-ever average XI in a Champions League game on Tuesday night. And that lack of experience and composure showed.
Kevin Danso, Cristian Romero, Djed Spence, Richarlison and Archie Gray were all yellow carded while Micky van de Ven, just a few days since his red card in the Premier League defeat to Crystal Palace, was incredibly fortunate to not be sent off for a studs-high challenge on David Hancko on the edge of the box after 39 minutes.
In total, Tottenham made 12 fouls and won only seven tackles. They once again let their emotions get the better of them as the game started to get away from them.
Ruthless Atletico
This was best summed up by Atletico’s fifth goal. Just seconds after Richarlison’s header was saved by Jan Oblak, a rapid counter-attack was executed by Antoine Griezmann and Alvarez again. The latter raced clear of Porro and slid the ball past Vicario.
Griezmann was in typically imperious form, ending the game with a showreel of majestic touches. In particular his part in the build-up to that second-half Alvarez strike.
Only five players have enjoyed more goal involvements in the Champions League than the Argentinian’s total of 29 (22 goals and eight assists) since his debut in 2022. He also became the first Atletico Madrid player to rack up 10 goal involvements in a single Champions League campaign.
For all of Tottenham’s defensive problems, credit has to go to Atletico’s efferverscent forward line for not letting them off the hook.
End of the road for Tudor?
Tudor received a lot of criticism for ignoring Kinsky as he left the pitch following his substitution. Former Liverpool and Real Madrid midfielder Steve McManaman was particularly scathing.
“That’s man-management at its very, very worst,” he told TNT Sports.
“That poor goalkeeper has had a terrible night after being chosen by his own manager, and for his manager to not even acknowledge him, put his arm round him, do something to affect the situation, that is cold as cold can be.”
Tudor’s record now stands at four defeats in his four games in charge in all competitions. Tottenham have conceded 14 goals during that time, while only scoring four themselves.
With the gap to the relegation zone in the Premier League down to just one point, the Tottenham hierarchy may feel they have to act now to find any sort of change in fortunes. Things are getting more desperate by the game in N17.