Tottenham suffered a disappointing 2-0 defeat to Sporting Lisbon on Tuesday night – and Football London report that during the loss in Portugal, Ivan Perisic was left ‘angry’ by something Ben Davies did during the first half of the match.
Tottenham came into the game with their tails up. A 2-0 win in the first Champions League group game, thanks to Richarlison’s double against Marseille, had put Spurs in a good position. A point at Sporting would have been okay.
While it was an equal match, Sporting carved out the better of the chances. Hugo Lloris was in excellent form, pulling off some magnificent saves – including a stunning one-handed effort to keep out ex-Spurs ace Marcus Edwards.
But Sporting scored two very-late goals to win 2-0. They sit top of the group after a 3-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt in the first week. Frankfurt beat Marseille, meaning they go level with Spurs. But it is a first defeat of the season for Conte.
Spurs, despite not playing on the weekend, looked lethargic. Numerous players were below their best – Son Heung-min, again, Emerson Royal and Rodrigo Bentancur struggling. But Perisic was fuming with Davies on about 10 minutes.
“Taking a touch inside and expecting Davies to be pushing up alongside him [Perisic] and taking on the ball in the process, the Welshman wasn’t there,” Rob Guest reports, regarding summer signing Perisic and £93k-a-week Davies.
“It forced his teammate to react quickly to ensure his Sporting marker didn’t gain possession. Perisic wasn’t impressed at all and angrily signalled to Davies that he should have been there with him rather than staying back.
Perisic left ‘angry’ by Davies as Tottenham suffer defeat
It is a poor loss. Tottenham will have been looking at the group and thinking that this is one they should be winning. Of course, that is still very possible. But Sporting are surprising many with their performances. Just ask Frankfurt.
The technical ability, the midfield balance, the tactical genius of highly-rated manager Ruben Amorim. It is all coming together for Sporting. What will have been more annoying was that Sporting’s brightest spark was Marcus Edwards.
Plenty to work on for Conte and Spurs – and the kind of result that some fans had feared was inevitable. It will be interesting to see how Spurs react when they take on Leicester City at home on Saturday evening.
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