Paris Saint-Germain overcame Tottenham Hotspur to win the UEFA Super Cup in Udine on Wednesday.
Thomas Frank came close to winning a trophy with Spurs in his first competitive game as their manager, but it slipped away.
Micky van de Ven opened the scoring in the 39th minute and Cristian Romero doubled Tottenham’s lead right after the break.
The north London club lead 2-0 for most of the second half before substitutes Lee Kang-in and Gonçalo Ramos scored two late goals to level the scoreline. The outcome of the tie was decided via a penalty shootout and both Van de Ven and Mathys Tel missed for Spurs.
French newspaper L’Equipe is well known for tough player ratings, and they’ve judged yesterday’s tie between Spurs and PSG.
Tottenham captain Cristian Romero got 8/10 and it was the highest from the two clubs. The next best was 7/10, given to Pape Matar Sarr.
Summer signings Mohammed Kudus and João Palhinha, along with Van de Ven, Pedro Porro and Richarlison all got 6/10, and 5/10 was given to Rodrigo Bentancur and Kevin Danso.
Both Guglielmo Vicario and Djed Spence got 4/10, and that’s the lowest among the Spurs players. Thomas Frank got 6. Tottenham’s overall average is 5.7/10, which is more than the 39 PSG got.
Despite failing to win the UEFA Super Cup, the newspaper was impressed by Tottenham’s overall performance.
L’Equipe state: ‘Romero (8), who was just named Tottenham’s captain following Son’s departure, lived up to his status, having been involved in both of his team’s goals, heading the first in the 39th minute before scoring the second in the 48th minute, following a free-kick from Perro (6), who was very accurate yesterday with the ball at his feet. Elsewhere, Sarr (7) and Palhinha (6) impressed with the quality of their defensive returns, while Richarlison (6) and Kudus (6) took turns being dangerous before the break. But late in the match, Spurs were penalised by Spence (4), who increasingly struggled against Ousmane Dembélé’s raids, and by Vicario (4), who could have done better on Lee Kang-in’s goal in the 85th minute, and who was not decisive in the penalty shootout.’