Key events
Goal! 34 min: Tottenham 2-1 Roma (Johnson)
Cracking goal.
30 min: Kulusevski and Porro link on the Spurs right. They’ve woken up again, but the way they surrendered the initiative after going 1-0 up was very … no, I won’t say it.
28 min: Now Sarr pounces on a Roma mistake. He strides into the penalty area and smacks a low shot that is gathered cleanly by Svilar. This is a helluva match.
27 min: Dybala is on the move again. Spurs are all over the shop in defence. The Argentinian moves into the penalty area, cuts inside and shoots: Forster makes an excellent low save.
26 min: Blimey! Spurs are denied a second in dramatic fashion! A Johnson effort is blocked on the line, desperately, by a Roma defender. There’s another follow up effort but Roma manage to get it out for a corner. The crowd are wailing. This is a brilliant game and a tremendous atmosphere.
Disallowed goal for Roma’s El Shaarawy!
Wowzers. What a goal. But is he offside? Yes he is. It is a delightful flick over the last defender by Dybala. El Shaarawy volleys it unerringly into the far corner, a goal reminiscent of Kylian Mbappé’s cracker in the World Cup final in 2022. But the winger is adjudged offside by the VAR.
Goal! 20 min: Tottenham 1-1 Roma (Ndicka)
Dybala strokes over a free-kick after a needless foul from Tottenham – Ndicka gets up and deflects the ball into the roof of the net off his shoulder! Super delivery, and a good header, even if it included a slice of luck.
17 min: A warning for Tottenham! Celik plays a low ball in from wide out on the Roma right. Dybala nearly nicks it away from Forster at the near post. But the goalie does well. Spurs cough up possession again though, almost immediately, as they try to play out from the back. A bit careless.
16 min: Johnson breaks down the right. He takes a good first touch and cuts inside. But then crosses without looking for a target and there is too much on it.
14 min: Spurs have quietened down from an attacking point of view since that high-octane start. Dybala fancies lobbing Forster from halfway. He tries it, but it’s a poor effort, much to the displeasure of Dovbyk, who was making a pacy run down the middle for the visitors.
12 min: Roma win a corner. It’s floated to Angelino on the edge of the box. He fluffs his attempted volley completely and the ball ends up back with Dybala, who took the corner. “I’ve seen some one-twos in my time but nothing like that,” says Glenn Hoddle.
The Son penalty.
8 min: All hands on deck for Roma’s defenders and it looks like they are in for a long night. Kulusevski this time is bearing down on a back-tracking opponents. But they manage to clear their lines.
Goal! 5 min: Tottenham 1-0 Roma (Son penalty)
Boom! A lovely penalty struck sweetly into the net with the goalie going the wrong way.
Penalty for Spurs.
There it is.
3 min: A lovely incisive move from Spurs. Hummels appears to catch Sarr in the penalty area after the ball is cut back from the hosts’ right. It looks like a foul at first glance … but the referee isn’t having it. However, after a long VAR check, the ref will take a look on the telly. I think this is a penalty.
2 min: Tottenham stroke the ball around a bit to start. Two banks of Roma defenders are camped in their penalty area.
First half kick-off!
Here we go.
The teams are out. Postecoglou and Ranieri exchange a few friendly words on the sideline. I couldn’t think of a time Spurs had played Roma, and indeed, this is the first competitive meeting between the sides.
On pundit duty, Peter Crouch predicts a “reasonably comfortable” win for Spurs.
“You need to move on quickly,” Postecoglou tells TNT Sports of that win at City. “It was a good day for us. We played well, and you need to against the best in the business. It’s a different challenge tonight. And it’ll be a good challenge.
Will Roma have a new manager bounce? “It will be a tough game. They’ve had a difficult start to the season. Europe is a bit of an escape from that for all clubs, a chance to kickstart your season … Claudio’s come in, they lost against Napoli: tonight will be a tough game.”
And finally on Fraser Forster: “He’s been around a long time and he’s a big part of the club. He’s already played in the Europa League this season so he’s not going in cold. He’ll do well.”
Thank you to Mats Hummels for reminding me: this is a crucial game for Roma’s European hopes:
“This game is incredibly important for us,” he said. “It’s possibly our last chance if we want to finish in the top eight but we need points anyway to reach the next round and turn things around for our team and our club. It’s a very difficult game but it’s also a big chance. We’re playing a very strong team but we can show we’re able to play at a much higher level.”
Bryan Cristante, on the bench for Roma tonight, is the player who swung that England v Italy Euro 2020 final in the Azzurri’s direction. In my opinion.
Chelsea have beaten Heidenheim 2-0 in the Europa Conference League.
As for the Europa League table, Spurs sit eighth as we go to press.
Roma are 21st out of 36.
Rodrigo Bentancur’s ban applies to domestic matches only, by the way:
David Hytner
Guglielmo Vicario has had surgery to repair an ankle fracture that he sustained in Tottenham’s 4-0 Premier League win at Manchester City on Saturday. The news has rocked the club so soon after such a morale-boosting result and it will deprive them of one of their key players and leaders at a busy time of the season.
Isn’t it lovely to reminisce about those pre-Brexit days when Ranieri led Leicester to the Premier League title?
But that was then, and this is now, and all that.
Will Unwin has Manchester United v Bodø/Glimt right here:
Four changes for Tottenham then, with Forster in nets, while Gray, Bentancur and Johnson also come in.
It’s a first start for Mats Hummels among three changes for Roma: Paulo Dybala also comes back into the side.
Team news
Tottenham (4-3-3): Forster; Porro, Dragusin, Davies, Gray; Sarr, Bentancur, Johnson; Kulusevski, Solanke, Son (capt.). Substitutes: Austin, Whiteman, Bissouma, Udogie, Maddison, Bergvall, Werner, Olusesi, Williams-Barnet, Hardy, King.
Roma (3-4-2-1): Svilar, Mancini, Hummels, Ndicka; Celik, Kone, Paredes, Angelino; Dybala, El Shaarawy; Dovbyk. Substitutes: Marin, Ryan, Cristante, Pellegrini, Abdulhamid, Soule, Le Fee, Baldanzi, Saelemaekers, Zalewski, Pisilli, Sangare.
Preamble
Ange Postecoglou said this is “a really pivotal part of the season”. He was speaking before his Tottenham players opened an industrial-sized can of whup-ass for Manchester City at the Etihad last Saturday, so hats off to him, the pivot has initially been positive.
But Spurs have eight more matches to squeeze in before Christmas, starting with Roma this evening, and such a congested spell will provide a stern test for Project Postecoglou and Ange-ball. For every 4-0 thrashing of the Premier League champions there seems to be a shock defeat by the likes of Crystal Palace or Ipswich, so the jury remains out on Tottenham’s long-term prospects under the Greek-Australian.
Whatever happens tonight should be fun, though, because Claudio Ranieri is back in charge of Roma for the third time in his career. The 73-year-old’s first match in charge as caretaker manager was a 1-0 defeat by Napoli last Sunday. Can the wily old fox derail Ange’s festive plans? We’re about to find out.
Kick-off: 8pm UK
