Tottenham Hotspur’s Champions League campaign came to an end as they were well beaten by RB Leipzig in the last 16.
Tottenham’s manager, Jose Mourinho was once considered one of the Champions League top managers. He won in 2004 with Porto and 2010 with Inter Milan.
Despite the Portuguese having such achievements, he now failed to win any of his eight Champions League knockout games since 2014.
The stats do not make good reading. This was his heaviest ever Champions League aggregate defeat and it is the first six-games winless run of his 935-game managerial career.
Mourinho rightly bemoans their injury list with Steven Bergwijn joining Harry Kane, Son Heung-Mina and Moussa Sissoko out of action. Nonetheless, the side should still be doing better.
Leipzig appeared hungrier, especially in the first half. Their two wing-backs had the beating of their opposite numbers with Angelino who looked ordinary in the first half of this season for City causing Serge Aurier so many problems.
At the center, Timo Werner was having the best time of his life up against Eric Dier.
Emil Forsberg scored with his first touch after coming off the bench to award Leipzig a 4-0 aggregate win.
Spurs did start well also. Sabitzer’s opener was against the run of play. Werner’s shot was blocked and then he squared the ball to the midfielder to blast home from outside the box. Lloris could not keep the ball out despite getting a touch.
Leipzig’s finest hour
Leipzig’s unique history makes the honor of the greatest moment in their history a bit more achievable. Since being founded by the energy drinks giant, Leipzig has won four promotions and played in one German Cup final. But this was their first-ever Champions League knockout tie.
They beat last year’s finalists 4-0 on aggregate and they deserved every bit of that victory.
Their highly-rated manager Julian Nagelsmann is the youngest person to manage in a Champions League knockout tie. He is now the youngest to win one too.
Leipzig has strength in depth too. Dayot Upamecano missed the first leg but was excellent this time. They could even bring on Sweden forward Forsberg in the 87th minute for Sabitzer to add the fourth overall.
That made them the only team to ever take a 3-0 lead against Mourinho in the Champions League.