Double Dutch blunder leaves Spurs in limbo
Two ridiculous decisions by the Dutch referee Bas Nijhuis and his assistants – one for and one against Spurs – left Harry and his charges with little hope of proceeding to the knock-out stage of the Europa League.
It was another one of those nights where the reserves get a chance to play an once again it backfired on the manager as the two Spurs central defenders Gallas and Bassong stood flat-footed as the Greeks scored twice in the first 13 minutes, first through Dimitrios Salpigidis after just five minutes with an unmarked header from inside the box and the 2nd from Stefanos Athanasiadis after 13 minutes after the ball had bounced about in the area, without being cleared and he banged the loose ball straight through the defence from just outside the area.
Harry must have been seething, althought he never shows much emotion in the dugout.
The first blunder came in the 38th minute when Harry Kane’s shot was blocked on the line by Konstantinos Stafylidis with the goalkeeper beaten, referee Bas Nijhuis blew his whistle for a foul and reached for the red card and signalled “handball”. Multiple replays of the incident showed that the Greek defender had pulled his arm behind his back as the shot came in, but it caught him just below the shoulder. There was no intention to stop the ball with his arm – that was obvious.
POAK were reduced to ten men, Spurs were awarded a penalty, which Modric banged home 1-2 the score.
With 30 minutes to play Spurs sent on Gareth Bale in the hope of getting at least an equaliser but that didn’t work as shots were off target.
The next blunder came in the 77th minute when POAK failed to clear the ball which was blocked on the line by Pablo Contreras, Jermaine Defoe following up on the shot collided with Contreras who lay prone in the goal-mouth. Defoe raced back and latched onto the loose ball and scored 2-2.
Then confusion reigned! The referee’s assistant on the far side had raised his flag for offside, when Defoe raced back in to score, but then dropped it! The referee, who was about two yards behind Defoe, never raised his arm and never blew for a foul and the extra official, standing next to the goal, just stood statuesque and did nothing.
Half a dozen replays later and much “expert analysis” determined that the goal was legal as Pablo Contreras was playing Defoe “on-side”
However the referee decided that Defoe’s challenge for the ball on Contreras to be a foul, disallowed the goal and awarded POAK a free kick.
The 10-man Greek defence was magnificent and held off Spurs until the final whistle, so with only “Match Day 6″ to come there is a mathematical chance of Spurs going through, if the hammer Shmrock Rovers in Ireland, but it is very slim indeed. Final score at Whitehart Lane: Tottenham Hotspur 1 – 2 POAK Salonika
In other Europa League matches played last night:
- FK Ruben Kazan 4 - 1 Shamrock
- Standard Liege 2 – 0 Hannover 96
- Vorskia 1 -1 FC Copenhagen
- Legia Warsaw 0 – 3 PSV Eindhoven
- Rapid Bucuresti 1 – 3 Hapoel Tel-Aviv
- FC Metalist Kharkiv 4 – 1 Austria Vienna
- Malmo FF 0 – 0 AZ Alkmaar
- Braga 1 – 0 Birmingham
- MK Maribor 3 – 4 Club Brugge
- Celtic 0 – 1 Atletico Madrid
- Stade Rennes 0 – 0 Undinese
Carling Cup
In the remaining quarter-final match played last night, Sir Alex proved that he has little regard for the League Cup when he fielded a 2nd-string side against Crystal Palace. United scored once through a penalty but conceded two goals to drop out of the competition.
The top flight clubs put far more emphasis on the Premier League Title and Champions League, which are big money spinners for the clubs. — Staff reporter, SportsCentral
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