Sunday, 5 May 2013

Spurs bottle penalty shootout

Tottenham's rollercoaster ride in the Europa League came to a dramatic end tonight as they suffered penalty shoot-out heartbreak in Basle.Clint Dempsey put Spurs ahead, before Mohamed Salah and Aleksandr Dragovic scored to put Basle on course for victory.Dempsey took the tie to extra-time with just eight minutes of normal time remaining - but Tottenham's task was then made much harder by the injury-time dismissal of Jan Vertonghen.Basle threw everything at the Londoners in extra-time, but they could not find a way through and the game went to penalties.Tottenham had not won a penalty shoot-out since 1994 - and it showed.Tom Huddlestone and Emmanuel Adebayor both missed from the spot while Basle converted all four of their efforts to send Andre Villas-Boas' team crashing out of the competition.Despite their hard work tonight on a ground where Bayern Munich and Manchester United were defeated last year, a dramatic run that has included red cards, an off the pitch stabbing, racist chanting, and two last-gasp wins, has now ended.Villas-Boas can be proud of his squad's endeavours - but they would have not been in this situation tonight had they wilted so pitifully in last week's first leg.

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