UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE
Round of 32 (2nd leg)
THURSDAY 26TH FEBRUARY, 2015
(7pm - C.E.T)
FIORENTINA 2(0) TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 0(0)

Fiorentina scorers:-
Gomez, 54
Salah, 71

Attendance:- 29,866

Referee:- Mr. Huseyin Gocek
Assistants:- Mustafa Eyisoy & Orkun Aktas
Additional assistants:- Mete Kalkavan & Baris Simsek
Fourth official:- Serkan Ok
(all officials from Turkey)

Teams:-
Fiorentina (4-3-3-):- Neto; Richards, Basanta (sub Rodriguez, 57), Savic, Alonso; Badelj, Pizarro (Capt.), Fernandez (sub Aquilani, 25); Joaquin (sub Pasqual, 84), Gomez, Salah

Subs not used:- Lezzerini; Tomovic, Llicic, Babacar

Booked:- Badelj (foul on Bentaleb), Salah (Goal celebration)

Spurs (4-2-3-1):- Lloris (Capt.); Chiriches, Fazio, Vertonghen (sub Walker, 75), Davies; Bentaleb (sub Kane, 63), Stambouli; Lamela, Eriksen, Chadli (sub Townsend, 63)

Subs not used:- Vorm; Rose; Paulinho, Mason

Booked:- Davies (foul on Badelj)

Disappointing failure

Possession might be 9 parts of the law, but having 64% last night in Florence did Spurs no good, as they tried and ultimately failed to pass their way round a packed Fiorentina midfield. When they did have a glorious chance to go 1-0 up, to take a lead in the tie, they (or should I say Soldado) squandered it and then surrendered the game to the hosts.

I understand that no British team has ever scored in the Fiorentina stadium, and that's a record which stands, thanks to Soldado's profligacy. The Spanish "striker" (one must use the term loosely in view of his Spurs record) was presented with the ball after good midfield play by Eriksen and Lamela, racing away with Chadli beside him, and only the goalkeeper to beat. Soldado should have scored, but in trying to generously set up Chadli, he scuffed his pass, and goalkeeper Neto prevented Chadli from converting.

That possession figure must have been even greater for the first half, but Spurs failed to test the goalkeeper, and Lloris hardly had any work to do either. Fiorentina had the pace to defeat Fazio on the break, but when they did break through, their shots were wide.

Mauricio Pochettino has "managed the minutes" played by his squad in the run-up to Sunday's Capital One Cup Final, but he really needs to beat Chelsea to justify the failure to play a full strength team in either game against Fiorentina, who march on to the Round of 16, whilst Spurs count down the games till the end of the season. That season could well be over on Sunday, although defeat would give sixth place another go in the Europa League, which we don't really value anyway.

Arguably, of those who will start on Sunday, only Lloris and Eriksen played 90 minutes last night, with Bentaleb, Chadli and Vertonghen substituted.

As I suggested in my preview, Vlad Chiriches replaced Walker at right back, and the early stages of the game seemed to focus on "F***ing Chiriches", as one or more of the fans near me called our Vlad.

Firstly, after a mis-placed pass, Fiorentina seized the ball, and Chelsea loanee Salah passed inside to Badelj, who fired wide. Then Chiriches made two excellent defensive interceptions/tackles against a Fiorentina attack that was after an early goal.

After that, Spurs managed a long period of possession play, which came to an end with Chiriches' attempted pass from the right, where his task was to get forward, with Lamela playing inside all the time. Fiorentina made a break from this failed pass, and won a corner.

After 9 minutes, the good side of Chiriches came out again, with an excellent through ball for Lamela, which led to a move involving Soldado, Eriksen and Lamela again, before Eriksen's final shot was saved.

Gomez was sent clear by a long ball from the back, and the German striker was ahead of Vertonghen. A combination of Gomez's hesitation in shooting, and Vertonghen's recovery prevented a goal.

The home side suffered the first of two forced changes, as Fernandez was injured and replaced by Aquilani, once of Liverpool.

That glorious chance for Soldado came after 28 minutes. Spurs had broken decisively from their own half, with a great ball by Eriksen to Lamela, who I thought might have gone round the outside and raced for goal. However, as is too often the case with Spurs players, Lamela chose caution, came inside, but did send Soldado away with a great pass. As previously described, Soldado failed so badly. Spurs never got a chance so good again.

For all Spurs' endeavour, they found it very tight in the middle. Their strategy should have been to try and get around the back, but we didn't (don't?) have the players to so that. Townsend is the only Spurs player with that potential, I suppose, or an advancing full-back, such as Walker or Rose. Even when Townsend did get on, he was double or triple marked and didn't make much headway.

Anyway, in that packed midfield, Stambouli lost possession, and Fiorentina made their trademark rapid break from their own half. With the pace of Salah, that was always a threat, but this time he got to an angled position and fired wide and over the target.

Two minutes after the break, Eriksen found Chadli with a good ball down the left channel, but the Belgian crossed into the goalkeeper's arms. Incidentally, Eriksen had a decent penalty shout in the first half, which had been turned down.

Fiorentina's captain for the night, Pizarro, had a shot held by Lloris, after a pass from the right by Salah.

Stamboul was called out for an alleged foul near the Fiorentina corner flag, and the Spurs bench went mad. I understand that one of Pochettino's assistants was sent to the stands for his vehement protests to the Turkish referee.

It wasn't long after that when, again after plenty of passes, Fazio gifted possession of the ball to Gomez inside the Spurs half, and Gomez was away, with Fazio never likely to catch him, slotting the ball home beneath Lloris's left arm.

In a sense, the situation wasn't changed for Spurs, who only needed one goal to take the tie to extra-time, and two to win.

Lamela lost the ball in midfield, and Salah had another run at goal, but failed. Pochettino made a double substitution, with Kane replacing Bentaleb, and Townsend replacing Chadli. We went to a 4-4-2, with Eriksen central beside Stambouli.

Badelj had a shot go wide, before Fiorentina went 2-0 up and put the tie beyond us. It looked like ping-pong in the Spurs box, and reports say Vertonghen made an error, but Gomez finally set up Salah for a goal he over-exuberantly celebrated, winning himself a yellow card. He didn't care about that though, as it ensured his team went into today's draw for the next round.

Now Walker replaced Vertonghen, and Chiriches took over his centre-half duties, performing quite capably, and making a decent pass or two.

Spurs had the ball in the net after 76 minutes, but Davies had correctly been called offside when receiving the ball before crossing for Kane to put the ball in the net. Kane, Eriksen and Lamela had been involved in the build-up.

Spurs tried to get a goal to give themselves half a chance, with Townsend taking a free kick from the right, with his left foot, and Soldado hitting a header beyond the back post.

The home side were always going to see out the three minutes of added time, and in the end the tie was a disappointing failure for Spurs, who had been well supported here by over 2,000 travelling fans.

Incidentally, those fans were treated like cattle, being transported to and from the stadium, with radical over-policing, and a minimum of two searches past the stewards and police. Such experiences make away trips in Europe an unpleasant experience, and this time, that was not ameliorated by a decent result.

The Spurs squad is staying in Florence today, training before flying home for their final Cup Final preparations. Other squad players, who might feature on Sunday - Eric Dier and Mousa Dembele - were seen training before the official warm-up.

That game against Chelsea assumes even greater importance now.

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