Here is Jacob Steinberg’s report:
Thanks for reading and ciao.
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Tremendously well worked goal for Roma’s late equaliser, by the way. Saelemaekers’ ball for the overlapping Angelino was perfectly weighted, and enabled the wing-back to get plenty of power on his cross. Hummels was there to whack it in from point-blank range. The journey back to Italy will be all the more pleasant for them.
Spurs are the bookies’ favourites to win the whole shebang. Playing like that, they’ll produce some more classic matches, but certainly won’t win it.
Match report coming up. Plus any reaction that I see on my telly.
Big, big result for Roma and for Ranieri in his second match in charge, as he begins his third spell in charge of his hometown club.
Rangers will overtake Spurs, bumping them out of the top eight in the Europa League table.
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Full-time! Tottenham 2-2 Roma
That was an amazingly entertaining game of association football. Congratulations to all involved.
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90 min +4: Spurs win a corner. Roma clear. Hummels, who doesn’t look 100% fit, dribbles the ball out from defence. Can someone find a winner?
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That is such bad luck for Forster, whose save from Mancini’s volley that led to the corner was absolutely incredible.
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That was coming. Saelemaekers, who has been class since he came on, spots Angelino coming on the overlap behind him and plays a beautifully weighted pass to the byline. Angelino hammers a low cross-shot to the far post. And who is waiting to turn it in? None other than our old friend Mats Hummels, who had such a shocker in the first half. Football! Bloody hell.
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Goal! 90min + 1: Tottenham 2-2 Roma (Hummels)
Wowee!
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89 min: Saelemaekers and Angelino link down the Roma left. Suddenly they are playing with considerable swagger. They switch the angle of attack. A corner is won. And then another … and then a marvellous save by Forster from a volley! Wow!
87 min: Whoops! Horrible error by Porro as a good early cross comes in for Roma. He tries to cushion a header back to Forster, but Dovbyk is nearly on to it! Somehow Spurs scramble it clear. That was lunacy from Porro.
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86 min: Now Werner is released in tonnes of space on the Spurs left. He flashes a low cross to the near post but Svilar gathers cleanly. Kulusevski then barges into the box seconds later and his shot is saved by Svilar.
84 min: Roma win a corner. Hummels tries an overhead kick. High and wide. Roma come again in attack, though …
83 min: Roma’s Paredes gets himself in a muddle near halfway. Bergvall is penalised for a foul. There is a very slight lull in this breathless second half.
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80 min: Werner crosses for Solanke! Solanke hits the woodwork after nodding for the near corner! Porro soon hits a volley in the next phase of play. Svilar gets down to save.
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78 min: Can Roma snatch a point? A win? To stand a chance of finishing in the top eight in this infernal group stage, they really need a win.
76 min: Roma’s Mancini gives away a corner trying to shepherd the ball out for a goal kick. The crowd cheer enthusiastically. Now, Son is taken off for Werner, Bentancur off for Bergvall.
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73 min: Saelemaekers is clattered by Bentancur out on the touchline. Ranieri, who is standing right there, wants a VAR check. But nothing doing. Bentancur is booked and is perhaps lucky that it isn’t more. There was also a yellow card brandished in the direction of Roma’s bench, I think.
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70 min: Tottenham’s Solanke smashes a shot from an angle. Svilar beats it out. The former Bournemouth and Liverpool man had Maddison inside him and that may have been the better option.
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69 min: Bissouma and Maddison come on for Spurs. Sarr and Johnson off.
For Roma, Saelemaekers and Zalewski are on, Celik and El Shaarawy off.
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68 min: Kone flashes a low shot fractionally wide for Roma now! Ranieri applauds.
Manchester United are now 3-2 up:
64 min: Solanke now pops up on the left and skins his marker. He sprints to the byline and crosses to the far post. Johnson is lurking, but Paredes does excellently to scoop the ball out for a corner while being careful not to turn it into his own net. I don’t think anyone in the stadium tonight will say they haven’t had value for money. It’s been non-stop.
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61 min: Porro hits the free-kick. It’s a brilliant effort that shaves the top of the bar.
“Tottenham have got to reset. They’re playing it too easy-osey at the back,” says Hoddle.
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60 min: Ah. There is the 10%. Davies embarks on a brilliant run at the guts of the Roma defence. He is upended by Ndicka and it’s a free-kick for Spurs in a dangerous central area. Porro will hit it, it seems.
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59 min: Angelino hits the bar with a volley! Tottenham have gone AWOL again it seems because it’s all Roma. Or certainly 90% Roma.
58 min: There are more goals in this. Don’t you worry about that. It’s end-to-end, more or less. Football is fun again.
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And another disallowed goal for Roma!
55min: Dovbyk now tucks a finish in at the near post! But a check for offside is ongoing. It was tight. And is confirmed.
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Disallowed goal for Roma!
53min: Dovbyk gets in behind and squares for Kone, who taps in. But the Ukrainian was caught offside by a disciplined Spurs back line.
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51 min: Dovbyk gets a rare bit of service in the penalty area. He tees up a teammate for a shot but it flies wide.
49 min: Paredes cracks a shot wide from distance for Roma. They could easily get right back into this and are building some quite tasty attacking moves.
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48 min: Spurs had a four-on-two there. But Roma got away with it. It was a good tackle by Hummels on Kulusevski.
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47 min: Spurs start the second half on the front foot. But Roma then build a concerted attack with Mancini crossing from the right. And now Tottenham break at pace!
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Second half kick off!
Matías Soulé on, Dybala off for Roma. He must be injured. Because he was flying.
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Kári Tulinius emails: “Kulusevski and Son sounds like the name of a law firm in a minor Coen Brothers movie, where John Goodman and Jefferson Mays play a father and son legal team representing a nakedly crooked politician who gets whacked.”
The pun supremo Peter Oh adds: “In terms of crest juxtaposition, matchups don’t get much better than this. Both feature animals doing things not often seen in nature. Spurs’ cockerel impressively perched on a ball, and Roma’s she-wolf suckling human twins.”
A bit of reading for you:
Classic Manchester United too, it seems:
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Half time: Tottenham 2-1 Roma
What a first half that was, by the way. Classic Spurs so far. See you soon for more.
45 min + 2: On the sideline, Postecoglou is screaming at Son about not running forward, or something like that.
We’ve got a couple of minutes more stoppage time.
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45 min: I’ve just seen an online news story originating from Italy with the headline: “Video: continua il disastro di Hummels per la Roma”
He has, unfortunately, had a bit of a shocker on his first start for the club.
44 min: Kulusevski and Son are in the thick of it again. The South Korea international dances into the area and finds his teammate. Kulusevski curls a right-footed shot, trying to bend it in the far post, but it drifts wide.
40 min: Porro has a crack from distance now. What a topsy-turvy first half this has been – Spurs are firmly back in control having apparently checked out mentally for 20 minutes or so.
39 min: Spurs mount another concerted attack. The ball ends up with Son, who digs out an excellent curling effort that Svilar has to tip around the post.
37 min: “The difference between the top, top teams is the mental side,” points out Hoddle on commentary. He is referring to Tottenham’s famous inconsistency.
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36 min: Now Kulusevski hits the post! Son blazes over from the rebound! This really is a sensational game.
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Goal! 34 min: Tottenham 2-1 Roma (Johnson)
Cracking goal. Spurs counter after Dybala gives it away in an advanced area. Kulusevski is released by an excellent pass by Sarr down the left. He collects it and promptly has Hummels on toast as he sprints to the byline. The Sweden international picks out a brilliant low cross to the near post, where Johnson has timed his run perfectly, and tucks his finish inside the near post. Spurs are BACK!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Penalty for Spurs
There it is.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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:
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.
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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.
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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
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