Tottenham Hotspur v Bayern Munich: Champions League – live!

Well! Spurs led, were pegged back, could have led again and were full throttle for half an hour. But Bayern seized a measure of control in the latter stages and Lewandowski capitalised brilliantly. All to play for after a rattling good half!

It’s been all Bayern for the last 15 minutes and we can’t say this wasn’t coming. Lewandowski is involved early in the move with a quite delicious flick by the right byline, resulting in a penalty claim from Tolisso. But play continues and Lewandowski, by now on the edge of the area, turns and cracks in a lethal low finish!

44 min: … who flops a low one wide, that snicks off the wall. Not worth the two-minute buildup! Anyhow, Bayern do get a corner out of it, defended well by Alderweireld.

43 min: Ndombele is booked for fouling Coutinho, who had got to his feet very quickly from a previous challenge and retrieved the ball. It’s in a brilliant position for Bayern and the numerous players who would fancy this one. Looks like Lewandowski …

41 min: Gnabry forces Lloris to beat away a meaty cross-shot, and Spurs still can’t really get out at the moment.

39 min: A Bayern corner from the left. They are seeing much more of the ball now. Coutinho’s delivery is good but Spurs flick it away.

38 min: Matt Richman writes on Son …

“As a not-Spurs fan, I have to agree with Mr. Ray. Beyond being someone who has yet to have an egregiously negative headline associated with him, he is pacy, has a relentless work ethic, and a direct-but-still-technical style that would make him an asset on literally any team. He’s one of my favourite active players these days; I just wish he wore a different shirt.”

36 min: A continuation of this good Bayern patch sees Alderweireld crane his neck crucially to stop Kimmich’s dink reaching Lewandowski.

35 min: Coman fizzes one wide of Lloris’s left post now. Bayern, after a rocky spell, have come back into it.

33 min: Lewandowski barges Winks off the ball fairly in midfield and suddenly Bayern look awash with possibility … until Sissoko comes back and blocks Coman off well. Then Alaba crosses and Lewandowski heads well wide.

31 min: Now Son flashes one wide of the near post. He’s really buzzing tonight. Bayern’s defence is not having a good one here and Neuer sensibly goes long from the goal kick.

30 min: This is much more like the tempo we associate with this Tottenham team, I must say.

28 min: Tottenham have a free-kick 25 yards out and a little to the left of centre. Kane is over it … and a yard over the bar, too.

26 min: “Is there currently a more likeable player than Son?” queries Speakeasy Ray. “He’s not at a Zola level in that sense but I also don’t know a single footy fan that doesn’t rate him or enjoy watching him.”

Spurs might have said “Ndombele” if he’d scored while I was pasting that. Found 15 yards out by Aurier, he has a clear shot at goal but allows Neuer to shovel it wide. Spurs ought to be ahead!

25 min: Gnabry is booked for shamelessly tugging Winks back in midfield after losing possession to him.

22 min: Aurier drills against Coman for a corner – not a penalty, as some of the crowd request, but it’s dealt with.

21 min: Corner kick for Bayern, now, which leads to another. Surely there are more goals in this one. Coutinho shoots straight at Lloris in the aftermath of the second.

19 min: Spurs win a corner after more fine work from Ndombele. This has been non-stop so far. They try a low one but Pavard clears towards Son, who tests Neuer with a 25-yard curler that the keeper clutches. It was probably going wide.

18 min: Kane is denied by Alaba! Son plays it over the top and Neuer is in no man’s land. Kane nicks it around him but, at an angle and on his wrong foot, he doesn’t get enough on his shot towards a vacant net and Alaba can desperately scoop it away!

What a start and what a hit! A Bayern skirmish is only half-cleared and Kimmich can take possession 25 yards out. He has too much time to work the ball onto his right foot and lashes a tremendous equaliser into the bottom corner. No sooner were Bayern behind than they’re level!

15 min: Chances at both ends, then, but Spurs have made theirs count. Bayern paid, as so many sides so, for trying to play from deep inside their own area in the face of a lively press. But then …

Tolisso gives the ball away when trying to play from the back and Sissoko, seizing possession, calmly plays in Son – this time on the right of the box. This time he makes no mistake, slamming it across Neuer, and he scores from his third chance of this still-young game!

Views? I think Alli is really, really good.

10 min: Alaba is stricken after Aurier jumps in *very* late on him. Let’s say he was trying to hurdle a tackle; otherwise that looked very bad indeed, like a kind of double stamp. Immense clumsiness after anything else, I think, and luckily Alaba is OK. And Spurs are then nearly very OK as Ndombele finds Son beautifully *again*, but with Kane waiting he allows Neuer to gather a cross-shot from a great position.

8 min: Maybe that’s settled Spurs down a touch. They’re now spraying the ball about the giving each other a few touches.

6 min: Bayern are keeping the ball quite well and looking to beat Spurs’ press when possible. But now Neuer is called into action! Ndombele slides Son through beautifully in the left of the area and the Korean has scored these before … but not this time, as Neuer saves with his legs. One chance apiece!

4 min: Now Coutinho is sent down the right by Pavard and Alderweireld has to hack away his ball towards a poised Lewandowski.

3 min: Big early chance for Bayern, that was. Vital it didn’t go in from a Spurs confidence point of view.

2 min: Spurs pressing Bayern pretty hard early on, disrupting their efforts to play from the back. This is exactly the kind of thing they need to recapture. But then Bayern do get out and Gnabry is played through the middle for a real chance … saved by Lloris as he blasts towards goal from 18 yards!

It is a *proper* European atmosphere in a wet, drenched, snarling north London today. They’re up for this!

Real did indeed draw. And, in Man City’s group, Shakhtar won late on at Atalanta. Meanwhile we have a light show at Spurs, and two teams lining up in the tunnel …

“I fancy Spurs to do good tonight.” writes Dave Branton. “Poch has named a pretty strong team to start and they started to show some of the last few seasons brilliance and resilience (what’s that, rapping or something?) against Southampton on Saturday. Come on you Spurs!!”

If you’d like more football than just this football, Barry Glendenning has Man City v Dinamo Zagreb just for *you*:

Elsewhere, Real Madrid have just come from two down to level it at 2-2 against Club Brugge at the Bernabeu. Still a poor result if it stands, but the Belgians are down to 10 for the final few minutes …

Christian Eriksen is on the

naughty step
bench again as you’ll see. In the Bayern side Serge Gnabry is back in London – he was a youngster at Arsenal, you’ll recall, before going on to bigger things.

Yes, Alli starts and this is exactly the kind of game you’d fancy him to pop up with something in …

We’ll dig into the nitty gritty shortly – in the meantime, help yourself to the Bayern latest with this from Ben Fisher:

Tottenham Hotspur: Lloris, Aurier, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Rose, Winks, Sissoko, Ndombele, Alli, Kane, Son. Subs: Sanchez, Lamela, Dier, Gazzaniga, Eriksen, Lucas Moura, Davies.

Bayern Munich: Neuer, Pavard, Boateng, Sule, Alaba, Kimmich, Tolisso, Gnabry, Coutinho, Coman, Lewandowski. Subs: Thiago, Javi Martinez, Cuisance, Perisic, Davies, Muller, Ulreich.

Referee: Clement Turpin

And what a tie this is! So much to like about this one – and so many strands of narrative too!

Can Spurs, on such a downer in the last few weeks, build on Saturday’s win over Southampton by securing the kind of European result that has been their preserve of late? It’s this kind of night that can really kick start a season, or at least set the fires alight once again. Mauricio Pochettino hasn’t become a bad manager overnight; quite the contrary. Nor have Spurs become a bad side. And Bayern … Bayern are surely there to be defeated, and in so doing banishing many of these early doubts.

They’re going along nicely at the moment mind you, topping the Bundesliga as of the weekend. It’s a slightly fresher squad than the one that laboured to defeat against Liverpool last season, with Philippe Coutinho among those firmly involved, so you’d expect a little more zip about them here. What Spurs really don’t want is the threat of the kind of salvage operation they had to perform in last season’s group stage, much as that did not really harm them eventually. They really shouldn’t have dropped points against Olympiakos last time out; they could to with at least a draw here against opponents who won routinely enough against Red Star Belgrade.

Tonight promises to be anything but routine! Stay close, and send me your emails and tweets!