Dinamo Zagreb 3-0 Tottenham Hotspur: 5 talking points as sorry Spurs are dumped out | Europa League 2020-21
In a shocking result in the Europa League tonight, Dinamo Zagreb turned around a two-goal deficit to dump Tottenham Hotspur out of the tournament.
A hat-trick from Mislav Orsic was enough to give Dinamo the victory on the night, sending them into the quarter-finals, while Tottenham will rue what might’ve been.
Jose Mourinho’s men looked lethargic from the off, and nobody was really surprised when Orsic opened the scoring on 62 minutes.
But Spurs simply couldn’t get anything going even after that, and another goal from Orsic sent the tie into extra-time on 82 minutes.
The second period of added time then started in the worst possible way for Tottenham, as Orsic dribbled past multiple players to finish his hat-trick.
And despite their best efforts, Spurs couldn’t find the away goal that would’ve sent them through.
Here are five talking points from Tottenham’s 3-0 loss to Dinamo Zagreb.
#1 Dinamo Zagreb and Mislav Orsic in particular were excellent
To give credit where it’s due, Dinamo Zagreb, and Mislav Orsic, in particular, were largely excellent tonight.
They out-fought Tottenham from the off, restricted their chances, and when they opened the scoring, it felt inevitable that they’d level the tie soon after.
Quite how the Croatian side managed it given the events of this week – including the jailing of manager Zoran Mamic – is anyone’s guess. But this night will go down in the history of their club.
And naturally, most of the praise must go to Orsic. His hat-trick was absolutely fantastic, particularly the first and third goals, although questions can be asked of Tottenham’s defending.
At the end of the day, Dinamo deserved to win this tie based on their performance tonight, and they now rightfully move into the quarter-finals.
#2 What happened to Tottenham?
On the flip side, this was comfortably one of the worst performances of the season for Tottenham.
Jose Mourinho sent a largely full-strength side out, including the likes of Harry Kane and Lucas Moura. Including substitutes, only the injured Son Heung-min and the suspended Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg were not involved.
And somehow, to a man, Tottenham were basically woeful.
There was the odd spark of life from the likes of Gareth Bale and the returning Giovani Lo Celso. But for the most part, Mourinho’s side looked lethargic, out of ideas, and almost hungover at times.
Essentially, they looked like a team who figured the job was already done after their 2-0 victory in the first leg, and they seemed to come to Zagreb to coast.
Quite who is to blame for this is a major question mark right now. But this loss now leaves Tottenham needing to beat Manchester City in the EFL Cup final to salvage their season.
And naturally, right now, that looks doubtful.