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London (AFP) – After Harry Kane’s 1-1 draw with Sporting Lisbon on Wednesday after a VAR review, Tottenham were denied a Champions League place of the last 16 as Harry Kane went deep into the downtime.
The Spurs need at least one point when they head to Marseille on Tuesday to reach the qualifying stage where all four sides in Group D are still alive towards matchday six.
A draw will be enough for Sporting, which will host Eintracht Frankfurt, to win.
The Spurs will likely have to deal with Southern France without coach Antonio Conte after Italy showed a red card in a controversial final.
Tottenham were forced to come from behind after former Spurs forward Marcus Edwards opened the score for Sporting.
Rodrigo Bentancur stabilized in the 10th minute and the home team thought they had the win with a death shot by Kane from a narrow angle.
However, after a VAR check lasting more than three minutes, it was decided that Kane was offside from Emerson Royal’s header.
Sporting was the least points deserved after enjoying better luck until the closing stages.
Conte has urged the Spurs board to further strengthen their roster in the January transfer window after back-to-back defeats hindered a bright start to the Premier League season.
However, the star of the 45-minute opening was a Tottenham academy graduate who was kicked out by the club at a young age.
Before Edwards left to pursue his career in Portugal, he first appeared with Vitoria Guimaraes only once at the boyhood club before switching to Sporting, returning to haunt his old club with a nice hit into the bottom corner in the 22nd minute.
Due to injury, the Spurs have badly missed Dejan Kulusevki’s creativity and Richarlison’s goal threat in recent weeks.
Sporting had to be out of sight as the hosts tried to find a way back into the game.
Hugo Lloris cleared all questions about his position to save one-on-one with Flavio Nazinho for the opening goal.
Minutes later, Nazinho widened, leaving the goal clear after Lloris parried Pedro Porro’s first effort.
Sports boss Ruben Amorim soon put his head in his hands as Bentancur passed goalkeeper Antonio Adan to ponder Ivan Perisic’s corner.
Eric Dier had to follow Edwards’ path to haunt his old club.
The England defender has twice headed wide glorious opportunities from open range.
Sporting kept Harry Kane and Son Heung-min quiet for 90 minutes, but the England captain thought they had won the match in stoppage time.
As tensions escalated as he awaited review of the goal, Conte blasted Dutch referee Danny Makkelie when he was given an offside, leaving Tottenham to deal with things to do in Marseille six days later.
© 2022 AFP
