Let's wake up, it's not over yet! Captain SON's angry cries, Tottenham Europa League Round of 16 second leg, heralding a major turnaround
Mar 07, 2025
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An angry 'Captain' in the face of the helpless defeat urged the grand sense of the entire players, including himself. Tottenham Hotspur Son Heung-min (33) had the word 'wake up call' in his mouth. It was a word that stimulated Tottenham players' desire to win and miss. Of course, this also contains complaints about himself, who has been unexpectedly sluggish.
Tottenham ruined the first round of the Europa League round of 16 with poor performance.
Tottenham lost 0-1 in the away match of AZ Alkmaar in the first round of the Europa League round of 16 at 2:45 a.m. on the 7th (Korean time) at Alkmaar AFAS Stadium in the Netherlands. Even the one goal that made the loss was Lucas Veribal's own goal.
The defeat on this day is painful. This is because it has put Tottenham on the verge of destroying the only remaining hope of winning this season. Tottenham are already hopeless in the English Premier League. Having played 27 rounds, he is currently ranked 13th in the league (33 points, 10 wins, 3 draws and 14 losses). If you want to go to the Europa League, you have to come up to 5th place, but you are 13 points behind Chelsea (46 points) who are currently in 5th place. In reality, it is an impossible gap to catch up with.
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Round of 16, AZ Alkmaar is the sixth-ranked team in the Eredivisie, Netherlands. It was not an easy opponent, but Tottenham was considered to have a higher chance of winning. In fact, in the results expected by European soccer statistics company Opta's supercomputer before the start of the Europa League round of 16, Tottenham's chances of beating AZ Alkmaar and reaching the quarterfinals were 70.7%. There was only a 29.3% chance that AZ Alkma would go up.
Even Tottenham was highly regarded as the second-most likely winner (14.5%) among the 16 teams. The first place was Lazio with 19.1 percent.
Despite this favorable prediction, Tottenham suffered a shock defeat in the away first leg. Tottenham manager Enze Postecoglou sent out all of his best members in the first game. Son Heung-min started as left and right wingers with Brennan Johnson. The center forward was Matisse Tell. Lucas Beribal, Rodrigo Bentancur and James Maddison were deployed after that, and Jed Spence, Archie Gray, Kevin Danso and Destiny Udogi were among the four backs. The starting goalkeeper was up to Guglielmo Vicario.
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Tottenham dedicated the winning run with an own goal during AZ Alkmaar's corner kick in the 18th minute of the first half. It was wrong that Beribal cleared the ball in front of the goal, so the backspin was caught and went into the goal. He lost a point in a relatively early start, but he failed to make up for it throughout the game.
Victory in the second leg of the home game at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium at 5 a.m. on the 14th has become desperate. The quarterfinals will be possible only if they win by at least two goals. If you win by one goal, you have to play extra games, and if the game is not confirmed there, you have to go to a penalty shootout. Winning a two-goal victory in the first and second half of the 90 minutes is the easiest and most obvious way to get to the quarterfinals.
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"I am very disappointed that our players, including myself, played like this," he said in an interview with TNT Sports. "Next game will be the most important game of the season. (Today's defeat) will be a great wake-up call"The disgrace of defeat should be used as the driving force for the next game."
Then "We not only didn't make anything in the first half, but we didn't make the plays we had to make. Very disappointing for individual performance and team performance. There is no excuse."But it's still only 0-1. The game is not over yet. "I have to be much better next week." He urged Tottenham players, including himself, to wake up.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
