73 passes, 5 long balls, 4 tackles: £20m Tottenham ace lifted his side up last night

Thu 27 October 2022 7:15, UK

Tottenham Hotspur played out a 1-1 draw with Sporting CP in Wednesday’s Champions League encounter in North London.

Antonio Conte’s Spurs hosted the Portuguese giants at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium hoping to seal qualification in Group D.

However, Tottenham struggled in the first half and fell a goal behind.

Spurs academy graduate Marcus Edwards struck against his former club.

The 23-year-old embarked on a driving run which culminated in a 25-yard rocket into the bottom corner.

Spurs were much improved in the second half, though they had Hugo Lloris to thank for several top saves.

Eventually, Tottenham got back into the game and equalised through Rodrigo Bentancur 10 minutes from time.

Ivan Perisic swung in a corner and the Uruguay international outjumped Antonio Adan to head in from six yards out.

What followed was a classic end to the game, with both sides fiercely pushing for a winner.

And in the fifth minute of injury time, it looked as though Tottenham had found it.

Perisic swung in a cross which Emerson Royal headed down, and Harry Kane turned and poked home from close range.

Spurs wildly celebrated what they thought was the winner, but a tense wait followed due to the VAR check.

Much to Tottenham’s outrage, the goal was disallowed.

It was deemed that Emerson’s header had travelled forwards, not backwards, making Kane offside.

But despite failing to get all three points, Spurs remain top of Group D ahead of their final fixture away to Marseille.

Tottenham are a point ahead of both Sporting and Eintracht Frankfurt, who climbed to third after beating Marseille.

Bentancur pulling the string for Spurs

The first-half player ratings would’ve made for terrible reading for most of Tottenham’s players.

However, quite a few of them emerged with credit at full-time.

Bentancur was one of those, the £20million man delivering another impressive display for Antonio Conte’s side.

Aside from scoring the equaliser, the 25-year-old clocked up some good stats, as per .

He registered three efforts during the course of the match, one of those obviously finding the back of the net.

Bentancur also completed one dribble, took 88 touches, made 73 passes and delivered five long balls, four of which found their target.

And in terms of defensive contributions, he weighed in with four tackles.

There was one more contribution which certainly seemed to lift Tottenham up early in the first half.

He embarked on a positive run into the box that resulted in Eric Dier testing the opposition goalkeeper.

This, as well as his goal and his impressive stats, show what a top player Bentancur is for Tottenham.