Tottenham Hotspur escaped from Monaco with a crucial Champions League point, despite being outplayed by their Ligue 1 opponents.
Guglielmo Vicario made eight saves, including some very impressive ones from Folarin Balogun and Jordan Teze. Former Liverpool forward Takumi Minamino also missed a series of second-half chances, as Monaco cut through Spurs every time they attacked.
But after fighting back at Bodo/Glimt to rescue an unlikely 2-2 draw last month, Thomas Frank’s Spurs have another Champions League point on the board. They are unbeaten after three games in the competition this season.
The Athletic’s Jack Pitt-Brooke and Elias Burke assess the action…
Good point, bad performance?
This was another game that will force Tottenham fans to ask themselves what matters more: results or performances?
Taking a point from one of their hardest away games in the Champions League’s league phase is an acceptable result. Spurs have taken five points from three games, with home games against Copenhagen and Slavia Prague and a difficult trip to Paris Saint-Germain to come before Christmas. On a week when so many goals were scored in this competition, a clean sheet, Spurs’ first since Doncaster Rovers one month ago, is perfectly creditable.
But no Spurs fan can have enjoyed this performance. Monaco were by far the better team, and while they shaded the first half, they cut through Tottenham time after time in the second. Only heroics from Vicario and some sloppy finishing kept the score level. Spurs looked disjointed and passive for long periods. Wilson Odobert had a few bright moments but Tottenham did not create much. And even with Joao Palhinha and Rodrigo Bentancur sitting in front of the defence, they looked remarkably easy to play through, as illustrated in the match dashboard below.
In the end, it was as unlikely a point as the one that Spurs took from Bodo/Glimt last month — it is very helpful for the league table, but will still leave some fans asking questions.
Jack Pitt-Brooke
Midfield quandary continues
After Sunday’s 2-1 defeat against Aston Villa, where Tottenham were booed by their home support, fans might have expected Frank to tinker with his defensive midfield pivot.
Palhinha and Bentancur offer security and defensive proficiency that were sorely lacking for most of last season, but they are not the creative types. Owing to Palhinha’s importance as a ball-winner, Bentancur was perhaps the more likely of the two to be rotated for this trip to Monaco, but Frank decided to stick with the duo that provided the base for the 2-0 away win against Manchester City in August.
The result in Monaco was much of the same. Palhinha continued to be a defensive force, while Bentancur floated beside him and kept possession ticking over within the much-derided ‘horseshoe’ structure that has characterised Tottenham’s in-possession play under the Dane. Xavi Simons, who was largely ineffective against Villa, dropped out for Lucas Bergvall, while Archie Gray came in at left-back to replace Djed Spence.
Bergvall had a difficult evening. He struggled to shake off his markers in possession and lost the ball in a dangerous position in the first half, leading to a big chance for Balogun that was saved by the excellent Vicario. Like Simons, Bergvall looked to operate between the lines but was rarely found. Gray, playing in a position that may have allowed him to drift centrally and help Spurs’ build-up, struggled to make a positive impact.
Bergvall and Bentancur were replaced on the hour mark for Simons and Pape Matar Sarr. The athleticism and positioning of Sarr helped Spurs defensively, but Monaco remained in the ascendancy. Under immense pressure from their far superior opposition, Spurs found opportunities to make the difference on the other end few and far between.
The most encouraging moment came after Randal Kolo Muani, who impressed in his 20-minute cameo, combined with Sarr to set up another substitute, Brennan Johnson, on his left foot inside the box, but his shot was blocked. For Spurs, who lacked creative inspiration again, it was about as good as it got.
Elias Burke
Vicario saves the day
In recent weeks, the Tottenham goalkeeper has been criticised by some Tottenham fans over his performances. When he was beaten twice from outside the box against Aston Villa on Sunday, it was taken as proof that he is not the elite shot-stopper that Spurs need. Some have even been calling for the promotion of Czech 22-year-old Antonin Kinsky.
But tonight was a reminder that Vicario is still a very effective operator at the top level. He kept Spurs in the game with a series of impressive saves. There were two from Balogun from close range in the first half, the first after Maghnes Akliouche had cut through the Spurs defence. In the second half, Vicario saved at his near post from Akliouche, dived to his left to deny Aleksandr Golovin and then stopped a point-blank Teze header soon after.
Without Vicario, Tottenham would have been well beaten. It felt like the greatest performance by a Spurs goalkeeper in Europe since some of Hugo Lloris’ biggest nights, such as his display away at Bayer Leverkusen in 2016. It goes to show that even though Vicario can look frantic or skittish at times, he remains an extremely effective shot-stopper. That said, Frank will surely wonder on the flight home why Monaco created so many good chances on the night.
Jack Pitt-Brooke
What did Thomas Frank say?
We will bring you this after he has spoken at the post-match press conference.
What next for Tottenham?