UEFA Cup - Udinese pile on Tottenham woe

Eurosport - Fri, 24 Oct 09:19:00 2008

Udinese continued Tottenham's miserable run of form by inflicting a 2-0 defeat on the North London side, reduced to 10 men, in the opening match of UEFA Cup Group D.

2008-2009 Tottenham Hotspur Jamie O'Hara - 0

Antonio Di Natale scored a first-half penalty after a howler by Spurs goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes (pictured) to put the second-placed Serie A side in the lead.

Jamie O'Hara collected two yellow cards in a minute for tackles on Alexis Sanchez in the second half to see red and leave manager Juande Ramos in further trouble.

Substitute Simone Pepe made sure late on when he finished a breakaway move after excellent work by the impressive Fabio Quagliarella.

Tottenham looked a side lacking confidence, exemplified when Didier Zokora failed to control a simple ball on the touchline and, at more cost, when O'Hara moved well away from goal when in a great position to shoot close in with goalkeeper Samir Handanovic stranded.

Under-fire coach Juande Ramos had omitted winger David Bentley, who had earlier criticised his team-mates, from the squad.

It was his replacement Aaron Lennon who caused most of the problems for the home defence, repeatedly scampering down the right but unable to supply a decisive final ball.

After a couple of hairy early moments Spurs looked settled into the match, building their play from a solid base, only for Brazilian Gomes to make a hash of controlling a simple ball and allowing Quagliarella to steal in.

As the Italy star looked to turn and shoot, Gomes manhandled him - and down the striker went.

There were yellow cards for Gomes, perhaps lucky to stay on the field, and Alexander Lukovic for complaining too vociferously before Udine captain Di Natale struck the spot-kick into the corner.

Spurs did have opportunities to equalise - Darren Bent directed a pair of weak headers at goal and O'Hara had that chance - but their haphazard gameplan went out of the window when the midfielder made two rash challenges on Chile international Sanchez 10 and 11 minutes after the break.

There were further yellow cards, including one for left-sided midfielder Bale, who should have centred at least one of three attacking free-kicks he wasted through shooting.

Di Natale almost scored s sensational second with an outrageous lob with his instep after bringing the ball down; Gomes hauled his massive frame backwards to claw it away from on the line.

Substitute Giovani dos Santos looked lively although, with his side a man down, he had little space to work with. Nevertheless, he presented a gilt-edged chance to Bent from the byline with five minutes left to play.

The striker headed powerfully this time under the crossbar from outside the six-yard box, only to see Handanovic tip the ball over.

A minute later the second-goal cushion was added by Pepe, who scored off the inside of the post following a superb breakaway move to leave Tottenham contemplating a fifth game without a win.

Dinamo Zagreb 3-2 NEC Nijmegen

Dinamo Zagreb came from behind with two late goals to beat NEC at home.

Dinamo took the lead after three minutes through Marijo Mandzukic, only to concede an own-goal equaliser 20 minutes later through Carlos.

Tim Withelmus Janssen gave the Dutch side the lead with 12 minutes left, but Bosko Balaban and Ivica Vrdoljak hit two goals inside three minutes to seal the victory for the Craotian hosts.

Jonathan Symcox / Reuters

Comment 55 - 74 of 94

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  1. Come on Gomes, you can do better than that, you are the­ best goal keeper at PSV when you beat Arsenal in­ Champion League a couple of years ago.

    Arsenal Fan

    From john d, on Fri 24 Oct 8:20AM

  2. The cockrels can crow quite proudly. They gave all they­ had including Gommez. Let's all give our­ collectrive crow to the lads. No one is above mistake.­ Gommez made one. Our deffenders made two - and­ unnecessary back pass which led to Gommez trying to­ control the ball under pressure and poor deffensive­ recovery when we lost the ball in Udune's aeea.­ Appart from poor choices by Bayle, the boys proudly­ crow this AM. I am certainly crowing for the club and­ players, OH OH OH OH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    From Dennis U, on Fri 24 Oct 7:57AM

  3. Damn I would hate to be a Spurs supporter, thank­ goodness im not. This just gets worse and worse.­ Misery, every game they are expecting to lose. Everyone­ shares a blame but it starts with the board for sacking­ Martin Jol... the man who got you 5th place twice in a­ row

    From Eve, on Fri 24 Oct 7:55AM

  4. GOMES is the main problem (oh yes there are problems­ everywhere) bt if the players have no confidence in­ their keeper then that's where it ALL­ starts!!

    Just watching GOMES, you can tell he has not­ got CONFIDENCE in himself!!!

    From Richie, on Fri 24 Oct 7:35AM

  5. SPURS! WHAT THE F!@#K...... sort it out

    From hed, on Fri 24 Oct 7:33AM

  6. they should get christain gross as trainer again, he­ will save ur butts, again!

    From jojojack99, on Fri 24 Oct 7:32AM

  7. If anyone thinks we aren't going to get relegated,­ think again! Let's be honest with ourselves, this­ is the worst Spurs side ever and yes, Ramos is partly­ to blame. He dropped David Bentley for criticising the­ rest of the team and we got stuffed yet again - He­ should have made Bentley captain!!! And as for the­ idiotic antics of Gomes... get rid of him before we go­ down, for gawd's sake!

    From Paul, on Fri 24 Oct 7:30AM

  8. It just gets better and better!!! (From an Arsenal fan)

    From slivatree, on Fri 24 Oct 5:24AM

  9. when are you tottenham fans going to exept that you are­ not a big team not any more 40 yrs ago may be so get­ off our backs and dont class us in your same league­ when you talk about arsenal man u chelsea liverpool­ .west ham are bigger so is charlton,

    From abdu, on Fri 24 Oct 3:18AM

  10. Joe Kinnear for Spurs!

    From Andrew, on Fri 24 Oct 2:51AM

  11. spurs is DOOMED!!!!

    From Uzer, on Fri 24 Oct 2:41AM

  12. wots wrong with spurs?
    they have the players to be at­ least top 6?
    take the players wages away
    to a play as­ you perform

    From geo, on Fri 24 Oct 2:41AM

  13. no surprise of the defeat as gomes are the culprit of­ match. wat ramos doing now are absolutely wrong by put­ 5 midfield as they are not performing, campbell and­ bent should start together. ramos already wrong b4 the­ season start by sold keane to liverpool, robinson to­ blackburn, although robinson also make a few mistake,­ but, he was still more stable than gomes...

    From kathy, on Fri 24 Oct 2:17AM
  14. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    white hart lane is falling down,falling down,falling­ down
    white hart lane is falling down,to the­ championship!!

    (it's a great song isnt it)

    From Uzer, on Fri 24 Oct 1:54AM

  15. ramos to stay? if a man u,chelsea or arsenal player­ gets sent off for bieng stupid, they look nervously at­ the manager,get off the pitch and leave the ground­ quick! o'hara gets sent off and walks off smiling­ and laughing! this sums up this spurs team, no respect­ for the manager, fans or club. but we still take your­ money thank you! sack the lot of them and get players­ in who want to wear the shirt!ramos has lost the­ dressing room and needs to go now!

    From stedy, on Fri 24 Oct 1:20AM

  16. I think tottenham is goig to have fiasco with Dinamo,­ too

    From miki, on Fri 24 Oct 12:37AM

  17. And who are you for, bb21?

    From GW, on Fri 24 Oct 12:31AM

  18. Spurs you are a complete embarrassment to the premier­ league, £150 million and yet you still cant play­ football I hope you turn out like Leeds languishing in­ the lower leagues.

    From callum, on Fri 24 Oct 12:20AM

  19. Painful to watch and players running all over the place­ with no direction. However, with all the talent at his­ disposal Ramos should turn this around at some stage.­ Whether or not he will be allowed to of course is­ another matter. Spurs fans know their football and the­ comments that Jol should never have gone are quite­ right. Mid table by end of Feb is my guess.

    From taff, on Fri 24 Oct 12:15AM

  20. come on you wont be playing southampton next seaSON­ THATS FOR SURE cos southampton will be in div 1 ,

    From Chris, on Fri 24 Oct 12:07AM
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