A game full of drama and goals saw us suffer our first loss in this season’s UEFA Champions League as holders Paris Saint-Germain inflicted a 5-3 defeat on us on Wednesday night.
On-loan Randal Kolo Muani scored twice against his parent club – his first Spurs goals – and Richarlison netted for the third successive game as we took the game to the French champions, but they took control in the second half with Vitinha completing a hat-trick and further goals from Fabian Ruiz and Willian Pacho.
We were level at the break at 1-1, Richarlison and Vitinha scoring for each side, before six goals in a crazy 30-minute spell in the second half moved the home side 5-3 ahead. There was even a red card in stoppage time, Lucas Hernandez seeing red for an elbow into the face of Xavi Simons, but by that stage the points were in the bag for PSG.
Looking for a response following the disappointment of Sunday’s north London derby, we were bright and brave as the game opened up and playing much more on the front foot. That didn’t prevent the home side from going close on a few occasions in the opening 20 minutes though, Fabian Ruiz fizzing wide from 20 yards, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia curling right-footed just past the far post and Warren Zaire-Emery unable to lift Vitinha’s neat pass over Gugliemo Vicario from close range.
We were well in the game though, playing confidently through the lines and getting players forward whenever the opportunity arose. The final ball was just lacking at times, but not in the 35th minute when we took the lead with a wonderful goal. Lucas Bergvall got down the left flank and played a clever back flick to put Archie Gray in behind him, he dinked a cross to the back post which Kolo Muani headed back into the danger zone and there was Richarlison to nod into a vacant net from inside the six-yard box.
Unfortunately though, we were pegged back just before half-time. Vitinha had a shot from the edge of the box deflected for a corner and, from the set-piece, Kvaratskhelia took a short one to Quentin Ndjantou who rolled the ball into the path of Vitinha and he let it come across his body before striking an incredible right-foot drive in off the crossbar with Vicario helpless.
It was a blow to concede so late in the half, but we came out quickly after the interval and looked to impose ourselves on the game, getting a swift reward with our second goal on 50 minutes. One dangerous corner from Pedro Porro was flicked away by a PSG head for a second and this time, his deep cross was nodded back by Richarlison, Gray’s prod goalwards was cleared off the line but it fell to Kolo Muani who volleyed into the net despite Marquinhos’ best efforts on the line to keep it out.
Back came the Parisiens though, Bradley Barcola heading over from a good position before they levelled it up, that man Vitinha again scoring another fine goal from distance, this time curling left-footed from 20 yards. And they took the lead for the first time in the game in the 59th minute when Cristian Romero played a pass out of defence to Pape Matar Sarr who was immediately tackled, Joao Neves backheeled the loose ball to Fabian Ruiz and he swept home from the edge of the area. Before we could get a foothold back into the game, it was 4-2 as Pacho capitalised on some hesitant defending from a corner to prod home and we were left with a huge challenge.
We didn’t shirk away from it though, kept trying to play and were rewarded with a third goal with 18 minutes remaining. Vitinha was dispossessed deep inside his own half by Rodrigo Bentancur, Kolo Muani picked up the ball, beat two defenders in the box and lashed a low shot past Lucas Chevalier. However, no sooner had we got back into the game than we conceded again, Vitinha completing the first hat-trick of his professional career when he slotted home a penalty to make it 5-3 after Romero was penalised for handball in the area when sliding in to block a shot.
There was no let-up to the pace of the game and Pedro Porro’s deflected shot had Chevalier scampering across his goal to push the ball away for a corner, Wilson Odobert fired into the side-netting and, at the other end, Goncalo Ramos couldn’t put the finishing touch to a well-worked PSG move before Micky van de Ven got in the way of Ousmane Dembele’s pass in the box which would have found Ramos in on goal had it reached him.
The game ended on an unsavoury note when Hernandez was given a straight red card after a pitchside review, having caught Xavi with an elbow to the face. From the resulting free-kick, Pedro Porro sent his 25-yard effort a yard over the bar and that brought to an end a crazy night in Paris.