Tottenham Hotspur 3 - 2 AaB

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Thursday Nov 29 2007 07:45

Tottenham Hotspur fought back from two goals down to beat AaB Aalborg 3-2 at White Hart Lane in the UEFA Cup and remain on course for the knockout stages of the competition.

Spurs boss Juande Ramos was forced to field Pascal Chimbonda at centre-half alongside Michael Dawson, with Younes Kaboul ruled out by a groin injury.

Aalborg silenced the White Hart Lane faithful within the first couple of minutes as the Danish side went in front from the first chance of the evening.

Midfielder Thomas Enevoldsen was given far too much time on the edge of the area and he crashed a right-foot shot beyond the despairing dive of goalkeeper Paul Robinson.

The early blow clearly affected Spurs, who took time to get into their stride before Jermaine Jenas started to dominate the midfield.

On the half-hour mark Siyabonga Nomvethe looked set to double the lead, only for Jenas to make a superb recovery tackle on the South African.

However, eight minutes before the break Spurs were 2-0 down as Rade Prica found space on the left and his ball across goal was bundled home from close range by Kasper Risgard.

Ramos brought on Darren Bent and Tom Huddlestone for the second half and within a minute Dimitar Berbatov halved the deficit, as he ran on to Huddlestone's pass to poke the ball home past the advancing Karim Zaza.

Six minutes into the second period it was 2-2 as the Aalborg defence was opened up again and Steed Malbranque crashed home a shot at the far post, despite Zaza getting a hand to the drive.

It was all Spurs now, although Prica continued to offer a threat on the counter for the visitors and just after the hour mark Enevoldsen fired a shot narrowly wide from 20 yards.

With 66 minutes played Spurs went in front for the first time as a Gareth Bale free-kick was only half-cleared and when Aaron Lennon drove the ball back in, Bent was in the right place to score from close range.

More goals looked likely in a highly-entertaining encounter, but none came as Spurs recorded a welcome victory to keep their UEFA Cup hopes on track, with Lennon denied by Zaza in the final minute.

  • 90
    That's it, it's all over, the referee has blown the final whistle.
  • 82
    Kevin-Prince Boateng goes into the referees book for unsporting behaviour.
  • 80
    Thomas Augustinussen is booked for unsporting behaviour.
  • 80
    Jeppe Curth goes into the referees book for unsporting behaviour.
  • 74
    AaB are replacing Thomas Enevoldsen with Jeppe Curth.
  • 74
    Tottenham are replacing Dimitar Berbatov with Kevin-Prince Boateng.
  • 66
    Goal!! Darren Bent scores for Tottenham.
  • 61
    Siyabonga Nomvethe is being taken off, Mattias Lindstrom has come on in his place.
  • 51
    Goal!! Tottenham have scored with Steed Malbranque putting it in the back of the net.
  • 46
    Goal!! Tottenham have scored with Dimitar Berbatov putting it in the back of the net.
  • 46
    The second half is under way with the score currently at 0 v 2.
  • 46
    Jermaine Jenas is being taken off, Darren Bent has come on in his place.
  • 46
    Young-Pyo Lee is being taken off, Tom Huddlestone has come on in his place.
  • 45
    Half time whistle is blown by P Proenca
  • 37
    Goal!! Kasper Risgard scores for AaB.
  • 2
    Goal!! Thomas Enevoldsen scores for AaB.
  • 0
    It's 7:45pm on Thursday, November 29th, the match has kicked off.

Statistics

Tottenham Hotspur
Shots on target 8
Shots off target 8
Shots off bar/post 0
Fouls 7
Offsides 6
Corners 5

AaB
Shots on target 2
Shots off target 8
Shots off bar/post 0
Fouls 11
Offsides 8
Corners 6

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