Sport

Spurs move into last 16 of Champions League

11:55 am on 2 November 2022

Tottenham Hotspur grabbed an unlikely last-gasp 2-1 victory at Olympique de Marseille to reach the Champions League last 16 as Group D winners.

Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg of Tottenham Hotspur celebrates with team mates. Photo: PHOTOSPORT

The Londoners, who needed only to avoid defeat to go through, suffered a first-half siege and trailed to Chancel Mbemba's header in stoppage time before the break.

However, French central defender Clement Lenglet proved to be Tottenham's saviour when he headed in his first goal for the club in the 54th minute to bring the scores level.

Spurs, who lost forward Son Heung-min to a head injury in a torrid opening period, were a different team after the interval and took control after Lenglet's equaliser.

Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg struck the crossbar for the visitors but Marseille should have scored late on when Sead Kolasinac somehow missed an open goal with a header.

Hojbjerg then sealed the victory in stoppage time to put Tottenham top of the group and leave Marseille, who at one point in the evening were top, in fourth spot and out of Europe.

Marseille's Virage Nord section of their Stade Velodrome was closed because of crowd trouble but the noise was still deafening from the moment the game kicked off.

Tottenham won the group on 11 points with Eintracht Frankfurt on 10, Sporting with seven and Marseille on six.

-Reuters