A 90TH-MINUTE strike by Mousa Dembele took Tottenham Hotspur through to the last 16 of the Europa League at Lyon’s expense on Thursday as the second leg of their tie ended in a 1-1 draw at the Stade de Gerland.
Just like in last week’s first leg, the English club netted at the death to douse the hopes of their French opponents, as Spurs followed up their 2-1 win a week ago to advance 3-2 on aggregate.
Gareth Bale’s brilliant stoppage-time free-kick had earned Tottenham victory in the first leg, and here Dembele delivered a decisive blow in the final minute, stepping away from Clement Grenier and firing across Remy Vercoutre and into the far corner with a vicious left-footed strike.
Lyon, who had led for much of the game through Maxime Gonalons’ headed opener, were left completely deflated by that blow, as Spurs march on to a last-16 tie against Inter Milan.
The North London side probably deserved to progress, but they were also fortunate when German referee Wolfgang Stark waved away strong Lyon claims for a penalty in the second half when Brad Friedel appeared to bring down Alexandre Lacazette inside the area.
This entertaining match, played in front of a packed Stade de Gerland — a stadium which has seen its fair share of memorable European nights in the Champions League over the last decade — could certaibly have gone either way.
Tottenham arrived in France having not played since last week’s first leg, and their freshness was combined with a confidence brought from their run of 10 games without defeat in the Premier League.Lyon, meanwhile, have managed to keep pace with Paris Saint-Germain at the top of Ligue 1 throughout this season, but Remi Garde’s side are not as fearsome an outfit as the one that dominated domestically throughout the last decade.
Despite that, they were clearly up for this game and probably should have taken the lead in the 10th minute, when Lacazette contrived to head weakly at Friedel while unmarked and just six yards from goal.
However, Friedel, who was again preferred between the posts to former Lyon custodian Hugo Lloris, had to pick the ball out of his net soon after, when Bale was guilty of allowing Gonalons to head in Grenier’s free-kick from the left flank.
Tottenham were now forced to do the chasing with Lyon leading on away goals, but they might have scored just before the interval when Lewis Holtby, the January signing from Schalke, saw his low snap-shot from just outside the box turned on to the post by Vercoutre.
And they threatened again shortly after the restart, as Bale fired inches wide from an Emmanuel Adebayor cross at the end of a rapid breakaway.
The Welshman then saw one of his trademark dipping free-kicks boxed away by the Lyon ‘keeper from 30 yards and was also denied when he tried his luck with a speculative long-range strike.
In between times, Adebayor saw an overhead effort — probably intended as a cross — strike the top of the bar, but while the visitors monopolised possession, they were lucky not to concede again just before the hour mark.Friedel had saved from the impressive Grenier before appearing to bring down Lacazette inside the area after making a hash of a clearance.
Stark waved away the Lyon appeals, and they were left feeling very hard done by as Dembele sent them packing from the competition at the death.
Meanwhile, Newcastle also went through tonight, thanks to a 1-0 win over Metalist Kharkiv.
The visitors were under the cosh for much of the match and Dutch keeper Tim Krul made several top drawer saves, before Ameobi struck on 64 minutes for a crucial away goal after keeper Olexandr Goryainov upended Moussa Sissoko.
And despite late pressure from the Ukrainians — Brazilian striker Willian Gomes hitting the post — Newcastle, whose last trophy came in the old Fairs Cup, predecessor of the now defunct UEFA Cup, back in 1969, held on to advance as Kharkiv suffered only their second defeat in 12 outings at the Metalist Stadium.
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Stupid idea to move minors to u17. Far too much of a gap between 17and 21 year olds. Would end up losing more players to other sports at the critical 18-20 age bracket. Minor championship is fantastic the way it is please don’t touch it.
RE plan for minor to be u17 whats happens to u16. Does this also mean that u21 is only open to those above 19.
I agree with nearly all their ideas.
Why not have the League Finals on St. Patrick’s Day?
Their reasoning for moving the Minor grade is sound. I would imagine they’ll move to an under 20 grade too, this would probably mean less clashes with senior games.
Why not play the Inter-Provincials around the time of the All-Ireland quarter finals or semi finals? With only a few counties still in the All-Ireland and club championships notoriously slow to get going there will be many inter county standard footballers willing to play top class competition.
Players just missing the cut in their home county should definitely be placed in a draft from which the weaker counties can pick. 4 players for Division 4 counties, 3 for Division 3 counties. After two seasons the players should be allowed reapply for their native county or else extend their draft period by another year.
A draft system similar to that in American sports is the obvious way to bolster the weaker counties. Keep the draft players within their native province to cut down travel times, I can’t see an issue with a couple of Dubs playing with Carlow for two years, Mayomen with Leitrim or Corkmen with Waterford. The players involved get to play in high quality competition and bring that experience back to their native counties, everybody’s a winner.
I’ll outline how the FRC could fix the Football Championships below. Eugene McGee could drop me a line and we’ll hammer out the finer details together!
The optimum system for the All-Ireland Football Championship should be:
A) Get rid of the January/February tournaments, move the League forward with the top 2 playing a League final in March.
B) The All-Ireland C’ship should be played like the World Cup. 33 teams in 7 groups of 4 and 1 group of 5. Seed the teams according to their finishing positions in the League, thereby linking the League and C’ship. Play the 3(4) round robin stage matches of the All-Ireland at neutral venues (except for New York and London who should play their matches at home) in April and May.
C) The 4 Provincial C’ships should be straight knock-out. They should be played in May/June, it may be necessary for the preliminary rounds of the Ulster and Leinster C’ships to overlap with the round robin stage of the All-Ireland. These titles remain a valid chance for meaningful silverware for all counties.
D) With the Provincial titles decided the All-Ireland C’ship Round of 16 takes place in late June, group winners getting the choice of home venue. Two weeks later the 1/4 Finals are held at neutral venues. Two weeks later the Semi Finals are held at Croke Park.
E) In mid August play the All-Ireland Football Final in glorious sunshine in Croke Park. All counties would have had at least 4 c’ship matches spread throughout the country. All counties would have had two shots at meaningful silverware. London and New York have a few home matches each year to spread the gospel of GAA. There are no dead rubbers.