When everyone had gathered breath, the only surprise was that Tottenham had run Galatasaray so close. There was certainly little shock in the fact that these particular teams contrived a wild, breathless encounter whose openness could have lent itself to a cricket score. Such a tally would have run in the home side’s favour had they converted a seemingly endless string of chances, Victor Osimhen spurning enough openings for a double hat-trick, and the patched up nature of Spurs’s side was only partly an excuse for their inability to assert any control.
Osimhen had to content himself with two first-half goals and, in the end, Galatasaray won because they were just about clinical enough before the interval. They fluffed their lines frequently thereafter and Ange Postecoglou was correct that Tottenham, down to 10 men for the final half-hour, improbably looked the likelier scorers in the dying moments. If Dejan Kulusevski had taken the chance to catch out the goalkeeper Fernando Muslera during added time, Galatasaray’s unwillingness to apply the handbrake would have been shown up.
None of this should have much bearing on Spurs’s prospects of reaching the knockout phase. They are, like their hosts, well on track to manage that but other storylines were always likely to rear up. One of them was a tale of two centre-forwards. If Osimhen’s experience was mixed yet ultimately successful the night was a maelstrom of emotions for Will Lankshear, who was given a start by Postecoglou and certainly responded to his manager’s wish that Tottenham embrace the heated atmosphere.
Galatasaray had looked like streaking away after Yunus Akgun, who played on loan at Leicester last season, connected with a bouncing ball beautifully and beat Fraser Forster all ends up from 22 yards. But Lankshear showed a poacher’s instinct to convert Brennan Johnson’s volleyed cross after his fellow teenager Archie Gray had clipped a sublime diagonal ball into the winger’s path. What a moment it was for the 19-year-old, on his second senior appearance, and he showed no little chutzpah by celebrating in front of a seething local crowd.
Lankshear barely had another kick until just before the hour, when he could not apply enough power to beat Muslera. Perhaps it was through frustration that, moments later, he was outmuscled near halfway and lunged recklessly at Gabriel Sara. He had already been booked and, via the referee Lawrence Visser’s inevitable punishment, departed to jeers. This venue can chew you up and disgorge you even when you appear to have tamed it; as an exercise in learning on the job, though, Lankshear will surely come to find it precious.
“It was just a bit of overenthusiasm in that moment and he’ll learn from that,” Postecoglou said of the youngster’s red card offence. “He took his goal well, he worked hard for the team. He’ll have learned a lot today. It’s not easy away in Europe but you can only allow them to learn that by exposing them to it.”
Postecoglou’s options had been limited by seven injury and illness enforced absences but, notwithstanding their gung-ho mores, Spurs should have had enough quality to run a tighter ship. James Maddison was particularly wasteful on the ball and for most of the match Yves Bissouma was attempting to run a one-man show in midfield. Loose passes from the back were seized upon too often and, while Galatasaray thrilled at full pelt, plenty of assistance came their way.
Their second goal, converted clinically by Osimhen after a move that began when Mauro Icardi dispossessed a sloppy Radu Dragusin, was a case in point. Shortly afterwards Osimhen met a cross from Dries Mertens with a brilliant cushioned finish at waist height and Tottenham were all at sea. The Nigerian had already been thwarted twice by Forster, with whom he fought a personal duel all night, and had a goal disallowed. In the second half he missed a free header and was somehow denied again by the keeper’s trailing leg.
Spurs and Forster were being peppered from all angles until Dominic Solanke, with a cute backheel from Pedro Porro’s centre, offered hope where none should have been available. It evaporated when Kulusevski could not connect with an opportunity to expose the stranded Muslera from range but Postecoglou had few complaints.
“We knew if we could keep the ball well in the first half we would finish strong, but we didn’t do that and paid the price,” he said. “I just felt it was self-inflicted. With 11 men we didn’t have anywhere near the conviction we needed so it’s disappointing.” Perhaps, but few neutrals were moaning.
