Ekun Samuel, 15 September 2016
With Tottenham featuring in this years Uefa Champions League after five and a half year absent from the competition, plenty of hopes are high flying with the successful handling of the Argentine Coach Mauricio Pochettino.
But the hopes could be in shambles if not tactical and responsive enough as they feature in the national Stadium of New Wembley for home games in the Champions League this season due to the reconstruction of their new Stadium. Spurs Wembley experience hasn't been on a good run for them previous as they have only won one of their five competitive outings at the new Wembley. Since beating Chelsea in the 2008 League Cup final, they have lost two League Cup finals — against Manchester United (2009) and Chelsea (2015) — and two FA Cup semifinals, against Portsmouth (2010) and Chelsea once again (2012).
They have now go on to lost their opening game against Monaco in front 85,011 fans – a record home attendance for an English club in any competition. And Spurs midfielder Dele Alli believes and admits the players let their fans down.
Monaco opened to the scoring through Bernardo Silva (15 min) after Erik Lamela gave the ball away in midfield. Silva picked up the ball and ran at the Spurs defence and with Jan Vertonghen standing off him, the midfielder produced a brilliant finish and the dive of Hugo Lloris wasn't enough to stop the rocket shot. And substitute Thoma Lemar (31 min) got on the scoresheet for the visitors after coming on for Nabil Dirar who was forced off the pitch earlier on, but Spurs got back into the game just before the break with Toby Alderweireld (45 min) pulling a goal back. Alderweireld rose highest to powerfully head Lamela's corner into the back of the net to score his first goal in the Champions League since 2014. But his life line goal wasn't enough to booster a come back from Spurs as they fell to disappointing 2-1 defeat to League 1 table toppers Monaco.
Spurs travel to CSKA Moscow on matchday two on September 27, and will be looking for a desperate win to get them back on track to put them in a strong position for qualifying for the round of 16.
