Bale injury tops night of frustration for Tottenham
Basle arrived in north London with a reputation for giant-killing after last year’s defeats of Manchester United and Bayern Munich.
The Swiss champions lived up to the hype, scoring two impressive away goals, but their task was made so much easier by some poor Spurs defending.
Valentin Stocker punished Kyle Naughton’s lax marking by slotting home the first and a shell-shocked Tottenham were 2-0 down by the 34th minute when Fabian Frei was left alone to head home a corner.
Emmanuel Adebayor’s fifth of the season and Gylfi Sigurdsson’s second-half effort brought the scores level, but the two away goals leave Villas-Boas’ men in serious danger of exiting the competition at the quarter-final stages.
A stoppage-time injury to star man Bale, who had to be carried off on a stretcher with an ankle problem, will only add to their concerns.
“He rolled on his ankle, at the moment there is a lot of pain, but hopefully not as bad as it could have been,” said a concerned Villas-Boas last night.
Spurs spent the opening exchanges on the back foot and Villas-Boas was not helped by an injury to Aaron Lennon, who came off after 20 minutes with what appeared to be a hamstring strain.
Kyle Naughton went close with a long-range effort and Bale tested Yann Sommer twice, but the Swiss continued to rattle the Tottenham defence.
Fabian Schar rode two challenges and found Streller, whose shot rebounded off a post and fell to Stocker, who stroked the ball home past a stranded Friedel.
Five minutes later Basle were 2-0 up. Jan Vertonghen accidentally flicked Stocker’s corner into the path of Frei, who directed his header beyond Friedel to send the travelling fans mad.
Streller out-jumped Gallas to send Stocker through on goal, but he shot just wide when he should have made it 3-0.
The miss seemed even more important when Spurs pulled one back seconds later. Adebayor swung his right leg at the ball and completely missed it, but he was given a second chance when Scott Parker’s shot fell into the Togolese’s path and he stabbed the ball past Sommer.
Parker then wasted a golden chance to level just before the break. With the goal gaping, Spurs’ skipper for the night drilled the ball right at Lewis Holtby while the German was on the floor after he collided with Sommer.
Spurs needed a slice of luck to make the equaliser happen. Sigurdsson slipped inside from the right flank and fired a powerful shot that would have gone straight at Sommer had it not taken a big deflection and looped over the goalkeeper into the net.
Spurs ended the game with nine man after Gallas went off injured and David Degen stood on star man Bale’s ankle meaning he had to be carried off on a stretcher — a worrying sight for a clearly concerned Villas-Boas.
Tottenham will now await a scan on the Welshman ahead of their Premier League run-in as they bid to stay in the top four.
TOTTENHAM: Friedel, Naughton, Gallas, Vertonghen, Assou-Ekotto (Dawson 57), Dembele, Parker, Lennon (Sigurdsson 24), Bale, Holtby (Dempsey 63), Adebayor.
BASLE: Sommer, Steinhofer, Schar, Dragovic, Voser, El-Nenny, Die (Cabral 66), Salah (David Degen 84), Fabian Frei, Stocker, Streller (Zoua 71).
Ref: Milorad Mazic (Serbia).
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