Self-belief serves Sporting well in late, great victory over Spurs

FALLEN HERO: Sporting’s Paulinho celebrates after scoring his side’s first goal in the Champions League Group D win over Tottenham Hotspur at the Estadio Jose Alvalade in Lisbon. Picture: Octavio Passos/Getty Images

SPORTING CLUBE DE PORTUGAL 2 (Paulinho 89, Arthur Gomes 90+1) TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 0 

Tottenham crashed to their first defeat of the season as two goals in the final minutes of an otherwise humdrum game gave Sporting a memorable victory and increased their lead at the top of Group D.

Spurs looked set for another hard-fought draw, even though they failed to score for the first time this season, until a dramatic finale that was out of keeping with the preceding 89 minutes.

Two substitutes did the trick for Sporting coach Ruben Amorim and did for Tottenham.

Paulinho – not the former Spurs midfielder - went on in the 75th minute and headed home from a corner in the 89th minute. And with Spurs chasing an equaliser in stoppage time, Arthur Gomes, who had gone on only moments earlier, ran in from the left, flew past the hapless Emerson Royal and slipped the ball past Hugo Lloris to complete an unexpected victory.

Home supporters in the Jose Alvalade stadium celebrated wildly, which was no great surprise given that most of them went into the match with little optimism.

But give credit to Amorim, who is making waves with his meteoric rise since moving into management. Still only 37, he led Sporting to their first league title in 19 years, and had predicted on Monday that his team could cause Tottenham problems if they showed enough self-belief.

So it proved as they started strongly and grew in confidence as Spurs failed to find a way through. Harry Kane, Heung Min Son and Richarlison all failed to find clear chances, and even before those two late goals, Lloris had made two spectacular saves to keep Spurs in the game.

The first came against Marcus Edwards, the 23-year-old forward that Tottenham let go three years ago but has blossomed since arriving in Portugal, first with Vitoria Guimaraes and now with Sporting.

Amorim was singing his praises before the game, and it was easy to see why. From early on, he set up Pedro Goncalves for an angled drive that was turned round the far post by Lloris.

Edwards then showed why Mauricio Pochettino once compared him to Lionel Messi with a mesmerising run from the 40 yards, leaving Eric Dier and Ben Davies in his wake, as he waltzed into the penalty area, exchanged passes with Francisco Trincao and shot towards goal from close range. Only the reflexes of Lloris prevented Edwards from opening the scoring, as the Frenchman got down well to flick the ball away for a corner.

Much later, Lloris made an even better save to tip away a curling shot from Perdro Porro that looked destined for the far corner of goal. But from the resulting corner kick, Paulinho rose highest at the near post to send a glancing header into the net.

It was a killer blow but a huge reward for Sporting's approach, never afraid to take the game to Tottenham with swift counter attacks, and defending stoically against the likes of Kane, Son and Richarlison, who was the hero of their win over Marseille last week with both goals.

But the Brazilian could not score in Lisbon last night, and the one time he put the ball past Sporting keeper Antonio Adan, it was ruled out for offside.

Antonio Conte was downcast: “Maybe we didn't deserve to win but at the same time we didn't deserve to lose this game,” he said.

“We need to know that if we want to have the ambition to go to the next round we have to fight, we have to fight a lot, especially in this group because in this group I see a lot of balance between the teams.

“To play in this competition you have to reduce the mistakes, because at the end you can pay. Tonight we paid a lot and now we are talking about a loss against a team that showed they are used to playing in this competition.” After two games in the Champions League Spurs are already playing catch-up, and Conte’s concern is understandably that they are not certain to finish in the top two, especially if they play like this again.

Tottenham return to action on Saturday in the Premier League, where they remain unbeaten. But against Leicester Conte and his players know they must be more clinical in attack and show more concentration up until the final whistle if they want to get back to winning ways.

TEAMS:

Sporting 3-4-3: Adan 7; Inacio 7, Coates 7, Reis 6; Porro 7, Morita 6, Ugarte 6, Nuno Santos 7; Trincao 7, Edwards 8, Goncalves 7.

Tottenham 3-4-3: Lloris 8; Romero 6, Dier 6, Davies 6; Emerson 5, Hojbjerg 6, Bentancur 7, Perisic 6; Richarlison 6, Kane 6, Son 6.

Ref: Srdjan Jovanovic (Serbia)