It was supposed to be an “easy” tie for England’s Tottenham Hotspur. It proved to be anything but.
Tonight, Young Boys Bern, a tiny club always on the periphery of European competition, shocked the Premiership giants with a 3-2 win in the first leg of their Champions League playoff stage tie.
Three goals in 24 minutes led the Swiss to a stunning upset that will be well-remembered by their fans but might not prove to be enough to win the whole contest. For the Londoners rebounded to snag two critical away goals ahead of their second leg tie in eight days’ time.
The match without any doubt was the most compelling of the five matches played across Europe Tuesday night that will set the Group Stages of world’s top club competition.
Five more first-leg games will kick off tomorrow, and you can follow all the action across the entire Fox family, with games broadcast live on Fox Soccer Channel, Fox Soccer Plus, your regional Fox Sports Network and our online service, FoxSoccer.tv.
Of course, if you’re away from your TV, you can always get live real-time updates via Twitter thanks to our feed at @fsctv.
Bern roared out of the gate when Senad Lucic converted a beauty of a goal in only the fourth minute: Theirry Doubal, Young Boys’ man of the match, whipped a 25-yard attempt in that deflected off the back of his teammate, Ammar Jamal, and fell presciently to Lucic alone on the left flank. Heurelho Gomes had no chance to make the save.
Was it a shock? No, in truth, the goal came firmly in the run of play as Young Boys mercilessly exploited a sloppy Spurs side that seemed to have left their form back at White Hart Lane.
Nine minutes later, Roman Pavyluchenko would cough the ball up to Doubal, who in turn slotted a lovely ball down the gut to Henri Bienvenu. Bienvenu absolutely torched defender Michael Dawson, and his finish past Gomes was cool. The third was just as humiliating, with Xavier Hochstrasser allowed to go right down the gut to cleanly beat Gomes to make it 3-0.
An infuriated Harry Redknapp had seen enough, yanking the out-of-his-depth Benoit Assou-Ekotto after only 36 minutes, and installing Tom Huddlestone, who calmed matters down. Sebastien Bassong would pull one back before the break but the critical strike came in the 83rd when Pavlyuchenko made amends with a blazing, top-corner strike that Marco Wolfli couldn’t hope to stop.
Spurs will be eager for redemption next Wednesday in the confines of their own grounds, but Young Boys served some notice tonight: They are not to be taken lightly.
The marquee game of the day kicked off early with Russian side Zenit St. Petersburg getting off to a fast start against France’s Auxerre. Aleksandr Kerzakhov gave the Russians the 1-0 win just three minutes in when he headed home Danko Lazovic’s searing cross past Olivier Sorin.
It was a stunning blow that Auxerre took an entire half to recover from, getting only one sincere chance on Vyachelsav Malafeev’s net, and that late in the first half from Dennis Oliech, whose shot rockjeted off the bar.
While Sorin never looked comfortable, Auxerre finally came to life after the break while Zenit began to drag. In truth, what should have been a far easier win for Zenit became a slog, with two big chances going begging at the feet of Roman Shirokov that could have iced the match after 50 minutes.
The result was a compelling but frustrating game that leaves Auxerre in good shape heading into their return leg in eight day’s time.
After playing 34 minutes against ten men, Ajax will probably have wanted better than to finish 1-1 in Ukraine, but they return to Amsterdam in charge of their high-profile tie against Dinamo Kiev.
The home team owed its draw to the play of 17-year old goalkeeper Maksym Koval, who twice denied Luis Suarez in the first half, then helped to create the equalizer after Dinamo was down to 10-men.
The sending off of 20-year-old Denys Garmash in the 55th minute should have opened the door wide for the Dutch. Garmash collected his second yellow for a wild tackle on Jan Verthonghen, who immediately exacted full price when he headed home the resulting free kick, laid on by Demy De Zeeuw.
But Koval kept the game alive just minutes later, stopping Siem De Jong when Ajax probably should have made it 2-0, then sending a goal kick downfield in the 66th minute that found Andriy Yarmelenko to head on past a sleeping Ajax defense. Oleh Gusiev ran free to beat Maarten Steklenburg to keep the match, and the tie, very much alive.
In Prague, the visitors MSK Zilina put a line under what is becoming an
unwanted trend for Czech football. Having been eliminated from the World Cup by Slovakia, the Czechs once again watched their neighbors -- who share their history -- dominate, this time at the club level.
Sparta Prague will rue the opening goal, which came off a comedy of errors, goalkeeper Jaromir Blazek first colliding with, then being impeded by his own defender Niklas Hoheneder. That allowed Momodou Ceesay all the time he needed to pick the far corner for a 51st minute lead.
Once ahead, Zilina was always more likely to score again, and they did in the 73rd minute when Tomas Oravec outleaped everyone at the near post to rocket a Patrik Mraz corner into the roof of the Sparta net.
The Czechs had one good chance late, but a Jurag Kucka free deflected past Martin Dubravkas' right-hand post, so Sparta head to Slovakia next week to battle daunting odds.
Rosenborg took a deserved 2-1 first leg win tonight, but Jesper Gronkjaer’s goal with six minutes remaining may have saved the tie for the Danes. Steffan Iversen got Rosenborg going in the 23rd when he converted a gorgeous volley headed on to him all alone with all the net to aim at. Marcus Henrikssen got the second just before the hour mark.
But Rosenborg -- despite many more chances -- failed to pad their lead, and Gronkjaer’s glancing header may prove to sink the Norwegians in eight days time.
Jamie Trecker is a senior writer for FoxSoccer.com covering the UEFA Champions League.
