Tottenham Hotspur FC

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Young Boys shock insipid Spurs

17 Aug 2010 - 22:12:38

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Tottenham Hotspur's Champions League dream remains in the balance after they fell to a disappointing 3-2 first leg defeat at Young Boys on Tuesday evening.

Harry Redknapp's side were shocked by the Swiss outfit in the opening exchanges as they cruised into a 3-0 lead.

But Sebastian Bassong's header just before the interval and Roman Pavlyuchenko's stunning drive in the closing stages have kept the tie alive.

Tottenham fell behind to Senad Lulic's cool finish after the ball fell kindly to him inside four minutes.

With Spurs' defenders appealing for the linesman's flag, Lulic kept his composure to fire past Heurelho Gomes.

Winger Giovani Dos Santos had an instant chance to restore parity after he raced onto Luka Modric's pass, but the Mexican was stopped by opposition shot-stopper Marco Wolfli.

Young Boys doubled their advantage on 13 minutes through Henri Bienvenu after he was played in behind Michael Dawson and he calmly slotted past the stranded Gomes.

Jermain Defoe then came within a whisker of getting on the end of Pavlyuchenko's sumptuous centre and Dos Santos shot high and wide as the Londoners forged a way back into the contest.

But worse was to follow as Bassong was caught flat-footed, leaving Xavier Hochstrasser to run free and smash his drive through Gomes and into the back of his net for a third time in a little over half an hour.

The ineffectual Benoit Assou-Ekotto was replaced by Tom Huddlestone as Spurs looked to make amends and, with the interval looming, Spurs finally made their mark as Bassong thumped home a header from Gareth Bale's fantastic corner.

Manager Harry Redknapp will have offered some stern words at the break and he replaced Modric with compatriot Niko Kranjcar as he searched for a further response.

Spurs started to pose more of a threat at the start of the second period with Bale, Kranjcar and Huddlestone providing the ammunition for Defoe and Pavlychenko.

As Spurs huffed and puffed, Young Boys held firm and they could have added to their lead as the game opened up.

David Degen's excellent free-kick was headed over by Bienvenu and Degen outpaced Michael Dawson on the left before finding substitute Christian Schneuwly unmarked in the middle.

But the youngster fired over the top and, minutes later he fizzed a similar effort over after Wilson Palacios' terrible back pass made it's way to him in the middle.

With just seven minutes to go, Pavlyuchenko played a neat one-two with Robbie Keane and the Russian fired an unstoppable drive inside Wolfli's near post to reduce the deficit further.

Spurs played out the final moments with some ease and they should be confident of going through to the group stage with a return leg win at White Hart Lane next week.