Europa League: Euro comeback gives us fresh belief, says Spurs boss Sherwood
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 3 DNIPRO DNIPROPETROVSK 1
(Tottenham win 3-2 on aggregate)
TOTTENHAM manager Tim Sherwood hopes his players can use last night’s dramatic turnaround at White Hart Lane as a springboard for a successful end to the season.
Spurs conceded two minutes after half-time in the second leg of their Europa League last-32 tie to trail 2-0 on aggregate.
But in a frenetic 13-minute spell a red card for Dnipro goalscorer Ronan Zozulya was sandwiched by goals from Christian Eriksen and Emmanuel Adebayor, before the Togo forward scored again to complete his comeback.
Sherwood said: “It’s a big platform for us. You can only learn from experiences and this will be a good example. Many thought we were probably dead and buried but the lads really showed belief.
“This club won’t accept anything less and that’s what I try and instil into them. We should be bouncing into that game against Cardiff on Sunday. I expect us to beat them.”
Trailing 1-0 from last week’s first leg, Spurs struggled to create a clearcut opening in the first half and conceded soon after half-time when Zozulya glanced in Ruslan Rotan’s free-kick.
But the hosts levelled on 56 minutes when Eriksen curled a free-kick in at the near post and the night swung firmly in Spurs’ favour six minutes later. Moments after Yevhen Konoplyanka had hit the post Dnipro team-mate Zozulya was shown a straight red card for head-butting Jan Vertonghen as the home side prepared to take a free-kick.
On the night Spurs fans waved goodbye to all-time leading European goalscorer Jermain Defoe, paraded on the pitch at half-time, fellow forward Adebayor took centre stage.
First he turned in Eriksen’s left-wing cross from six yards, then controlled a lofted pass from left-back Zeki Fryers on his chest and poked his side ahead in the tie for the first time to set up a last-16 meeting with Benfica.
Swansea, however, failed to progress from their round of 32 tie with Napoli, going down 3-1 in the second leg.