Wednesday, 21 November 2012

Maribor 1 Tottenham Hotspur 1: match report - Telegraph.co.uk

"It is obviously not the full result we wanted bearing in mind the draw between Lazio and Panathinaikos, but certainly we will take a point.

"The group is completely open. What we face now is two games at home and I think we are in a good position in the group.

"We are in third position. We have three games to play, there are nine points to play for.

"You see the group - it is very tight. It is not a group where the leader has run off with points."

Villas-Boas, whose side are just two points behind Group J leaders Lazio, will be hoping for an improved performance when they return to Premier League action on Sunday.

Struggling new boys Southampton are the opponents and the Portuguese will be hoping to iron out some of the negative aspects his side displayed tonight and in last weekend 4-2 home defeat to Chelsea.

"The first half was poor in terms of possession," Villas-Boas said. "It is what we spoke about at the end of the Chelsea game. I think we committed the same mistakes.

"We kept on giving the ball away instead of being a little bit more calm and keeping the ball.

"The opponent was closing down the spaces well and we can't rush everything.

"We need to be a bit more patient in possession to find the right space to break through and I think we did it much better in the second half than the first half."

A rare highlight for Spurs was the performance of substitute Iago Falque, whose introduction at half-time had the desired effect.

Just 13 minutes after coming on, the Spaniard made a telling impact by providing the cross that allowed Sigurdsson to score during a penalty-box melee.

"He had an extremely good game," Villas-Boas said of Falque. "He had his first game against Carlisle.

"This is his second game against stronger opposition this season. He did extremely well.

"His performance made the link-up player better for us. He is a certainly someone we can count on."

While Spurs left Slovenia's second city frustrated, the draw was met by jubilant celebrations by the home team and their fans.

Maribor retain a realistic chance of qualifying from a tough-looking group and impressed against their Premier League counterparts this evening.

"We are very proud of what we achieved tonight," manager Darko Milanic said.

"Our opponents didn't have many chances, but they had the initiative.

"We should have stopped the goal, but I'm very happy for my team. It's an important point that keeps us alive to advance to the next stage."

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