But can he do it in the Champions League? It was one of the grumbles from the Tottenham fanbase when their club appointed Thomas Frank given how his experience of European football extended to little more than a handful of Europa League qualifiers with Brondby more than a decade ago.
It was a nervy big-time debut for the manager, his team retreating into their shells after half-time, looking to hold on to the lead they were presented with at the outset by one of the ultimate goalkeeping howlers. It was a moment to haunt Villarreal’s Luiz Júnior, who was the greatest danger to his team in front of their goal. Tottenham could get little going as an attacking force. Luiz Júnior had further wobbly moments, although he got away with them.
Villarreal pressed on to the front foot and it was a night when the yellow cards fluttered and the referee, Rade Obrenovic, never gave the impression he was fully in control. Spurs certainly had none of that. Xavi Simons was fortunate to escape a second yellow card just after the hour for a hack at Nicolas Pépé, Villarreal’s former Arsenal winger, who made light of the jeers he heard to produce a man-of-the-match performance.
Another ex-Arsenal player provided the real side-show. Thomas Partey, who will appear at Southwark crown court on Wednesday morning to answer rape charges, was brought off the Villarreal bench in the 77th minute and, suffice to say, it was difficult to hear the announcement of his name.
Villarreal advertised the equaliser and there was the flashpoint on 84 minutes when Micky van de Ven barged over Georges Mikautadze on the very edge of the area as the striker ran through. Van de Ven escaped with a yellow card; like Simons, he could easily have been dismissed. Pépé whipped the free-kick past the post and Spurs got away with it, relief the overriding emotion when it was all over. Frank could simply cherish the clean sheet; it is now four in five matches for his team. And, above all, the points.
The goal came early and it was a gift from the football gods. Lucas Bergvall had worked his way into a crossing position on the right and he could see the run of Richarlison in the middle but the low delivery was too close to Luiz Júnior, who went to ground to collect. Why, then, was the ball now rolling into the net? It needed a double take to see that he had somehow pushed it there himself. Did the impact of his gloves against the turf cause the catastrophe? Frankly, there were no satisfactory answers.
Marcelino set his Villarreal team up in an old-school 4-4-2 and they stabilised after the own goal. Pépé came to life; quick, direct and dangerous. Twice in the first-half, he almost drew his team level. He shaped a curler for the bottom corner, which Van de Ven deflected off target. And it was Pépé who played in Tajon Buchanan for a glorious chance after some less than convincing Spurs defending. Buchanan shot wastefully wide.
Pape Matar Sarr extended Junior with a low drive in the 30th minute – it would be Spurs’s only effort on target; indeed, the only one that either side mustered. Frank’s team would enter the interval chuntering about refereeing decisions, namely the non-award of two penalties.
Pape Gueye seemed to kick through Richarlison; the decision was that the Spurs striker had fished out his leg to anticipate the contract. And Gueye felt a Bergvall flick rear up to hit his outstretched hand. He could not really have got it out of the way. Obrenovic got those correct.
It was Spurs’s first home game since the ousting of the chair, Daniel Levy; an extreme novelty for him not to be seen in his familiar seat in the stadium he built. The new boardroom powers were present and correct, including Charles and Vivienne Lewis, the children of the former owner, Joe Lewis.
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It was subdued in the stands for long spells, the surprise at the outset being the empty seats in the upper tiers. Was it because it was only Villarreal, the fifth-best team from last season’s La Liga? On the other hand, Spurs season-ticket holders do not have cup games included in their packages. They cost extra.
Spurs were sloppy after the second-half restart; their passing poor. Frank’s players sat deeper and it seemed as though they were inviting trouble. The manager needed Cristian Romero and Van de Ven to stand tall at the back. Pépé continued to threaten, pushing a shot just past the far corner on 55 minutes and, when he was caught by Simons, it looked set to add up to a red card. Instead, Obrenovic spared Simons and booked Marcelino for his furious reaction.
Simons would get away with a barge on the substitute, Ilias Akhomach, inside the area before Van de Ven made what was effectively a match-saving foul on Mikautadze. Marcelino felt that both Simons and Van de Ven ought to have been sent off.
“Two really clear actions,” the Villarreal manager said. “With the one of Simons [on Pépé], it didn’t look like he wanted to play the ball. The referee didn’t have his best day. He was a bit of a homer. It was an unjust result. A draw would have been the fairest result but the team that deserved to win was us, not Tottenham.”
