Spurs Euro dream ends with penalty heartbreak

FC Basle 2 Tottenham 2 (Agg: 4-4) Basle win 4-1 on pens

Clint Dempsey had earlier put Spurs ahead, before Mohamed Salah and Aleksandr Dragovic scored to put Basle on course for victory.

Dempsey took the tie to extra-time with just eight minutes of normal time remaining — but Tottenham’s task was then made much harder by the injury-time dismissal of Jan Vertonghen.

Basle threw everything at the Londoners in extra-time, but they could not find a way through and the game went to penalties.

Tottenham had not won a penalty shoot-out since 1994 — it showed.

Tom Huddlestone and Emmanuel Adebayor both missed from the spot while Basle converted all four of their efforts to send Andre Villas-Boas’ team crashing out of the competition.

Despite their hard work on a ground where Bayern Munich and Manchester United were defeated last year, a dramatic run that has included red cards, an off-the-pitch stabbing, racist chanting and two last-gasp wins has now ended.

Andre Villas-Boas can be proud of his squad’s endeavours, but they would not been in this situation had they not wilted so pitifully in last week’s first leg.

It also remains to be seen whether the Portuguese’s policy of playing his best players in the search of his second European trophy in three seasons has been a wise one with Tottenham’s patched-up squad currently faltering in the home straight in the Premier League.

Meanwhile, England coach Roy Hodgson has urged the football authorities to beware of neo-Nazi groups trying to cause trouble at matches.

Uefa has proposed new, tougher anti-racism sanctions from next season, including a partial closure of stadiums for a first incident of racist abuse by fans — rather than just a fine — and a full closure for a second offence.

Hodgson is concerned that “it’s very difficult to control every element”.

He added: “One does fear sabotage, with groups of people coming in who have nothing to do with football and who are perhaps of a Nazi persuasion and who could cause an awful lot of problems.”

Hodgson didn’t specify which countries he thought might be afflicted. Uefa can only enforce its sanctions in European competitions.

BASLE: Sommer, Philipp Degen, Schar, Dragovic, Park, El-Nenny, Fabian Frei, Die (Diaz 58),Salah (Alexander Frei 111), Stocker (Steinhofer 70), Streller.

TOTTENHAM: Friedel, Walker, Dawson, Vertonghen, Naughton (Assou-Ekotto 78), Dembele (Carroll 59), Parker (Huddlestone 77), Holtby, Dempsey, Sigurdsson, Adebayor.

Referee: Olegario Benquerenca (Por).