Orsic shatters sorry Spurs

Tottenham tumbled out of the Europa League, surrendering a two-goal first-leg advantage to Dinamo Zagreb to lose 3-0 on the night and 3-2 on aggregate after extra time.

This was unquestionably the low point of Jose Mourinho’s underwhelming 17-month tenure. After the match, the visibly dazed manager felt compelled to apologise to the Tottenham fans for a performance that plumbed even lower depths than Sunday’s timid North London Derby defeat. If Daniel Levy hasn’t already war-gamed what an expensive summer parting of the ways with Mourinho might look like, he certainly will now.

There was an unease about Tottenham from the outset in the Croatian capital. Rather than setting out to score an away goal that would have required the hosts to hit four, Spurs approached the match as if it were to be endured rather than enjoyed. This was particularly baffling as Zagreb had shown precious little a week ago in North London to suggest they could hurt Spurs. And since then, the Croatians had been shorn of their head coach, following his conviction for fraud.

After 35 soporific minutes, Dinamo fashioned the first real chance of the match. Lovro Majer attempted to thread a ball through the Tottenham defence, which struck Davinson Sanchez’s legs and rebounded back to the midfielder – inside the box and with a clear shooting chance. Majer’s low drive narrowly missed Lloris’s far post, but it was a chance he should have buried. The resulting goal-kick saw Ben Davies dispossessed, allowing Majer to tease another ball behind the Spurs rearguard. Only a desperate lunge from Sanchez this time saw the danger averted.

Moments before half-time, Tottenham finally produced a coherent attack of their own as Lamela burst across the half-way line before releasing the ball to Lucas Moura. The Brazilian instantly slipped Kane through on the left of the box. But the acute angle was against the striker, and Livakovic made a smothering save.

After the interval, Spurs continued to content themselves with merely going through the motions and whittling down the clock. With an hour played, Mourinho replaced Lamela with Bale. Before the Welshman had managed a meaningful touch of the ball, Dinamo brilliantly exposed Tottenham’s illusory sense of security in the tie. Mislav Orsic dashed behind Serge Aurier on the right side of the Tottenham defence. Off-balance following his sprint to recover, the Ivorian fatally allowed Orsic to cut inside. From the edge of the box, the winger thundered an unstoppable drive into the top left corner of Lloris’s net.

Rasmus Lauritsen squandered an excellent chance to level the tie two minutes later. The defender swept a half-volley over the cross-bar from close range following a well-worked short corner. Recognising that there was little hope of Spurs clinging on to their now precarious lead, Mourinho belatedly tried to inject some attacking impetus into his side. Lo Celso and Ndombele replaced the ineffective Winks and anonymous Alli.

Lo Celso briefly offered respite to his shaken colleagues, making positive runs forward and demanding the ball. With twenty minutes to play, a neat move down the left saw Moura reach the byline and pull the ball back to the Argentinian on the penalty spot. The midfielder’s nimble turn afforded space for a shot which, deflecting off Lauritsen, was smartly parried away by Livakovic at his near post. In short order though, even Lo Celso succumbed to the malaise that was so afflicting his team-mates.

The only real surprise about Dinamo’s second goal, which levelled the aggregate score, was that it took until the 82nd minute to arrive. A quickfire passing combination between Ademi and substitute Iyayi Atiemwen released the Nigerian on the Tottenham left. Spotting that Orsic had raced clear of the lumbering Sissoko, Atiemwen rolled the ball across the face of goal, where Orsic dispatched a shot beyond Lloris with relish.

At last awakening to the prospect of a humiliating European exit, Spurs at least tried to assert themselves on the match in the final five minutes of regular time. Bale willed some space on the right into existence with a series of feints before whipping an inch-perfect cross to the back post for the lurking Kane. The striker headed the ball goalwards from just inside the six-yard box but was denied on the line by Livakovic and then Theophile- Catherir.

Dinamo were back on the front foot in the early minutes of extra time. The impressive Atiemwen found Leovac unattended by the Tottenham defence to the right of the penalty spot. With only Lloris to beat and ignoring Gavranovic’s pleas for a square pass, the substitute failed to hit the target with a tame cross-shot.

The winner that Dinamo thoroughly deserved arrived a minute into the second period of extra-time. Orsic completed his hat-trick with a goal that eclipsed even his sensational first strike. Picking up the ball just inside the Tottenham half, he charged beyond Bale, rode Aurier’s insipid ‘tackle’ and then unleashed a blistering strike beyond Lloris into the bottom right corner. Dinamo’s other star turn on the night, Livakovic, then denied Bale and Kane late on. But Spurs play was too ragged and finishing too desperate for the situation to be salvaged at the death.

Tottenham’s season will now be defined by whether they can shock the irrepressible Manchester City at Wembley in the League Cup Final next month. A campaign that once promised so much for Spurs increasingly looks destined to end in bitter failure.