In many ways this felt like the natural next step for Tottenham Hotspur’s strained relationship with the Europa Conference League.
A competition that has offered pretty much unremitting bleakness since it started for Spurs seven matches and three months ago cranked up the sadness with the latest instalment of ineptitude: a 2-1 last-second away defeat in Europe’s third-tier competition to Mura, a team mid-table in the Slovenian league with the lowest UEFA coefficient ranking of any team on the continent this season.
This after battling back with 10 men to draw level after Ryan Sessegnon’s first-half red card. Yes from the competition that brought you a 1-0 defeat to Pacos de Ferreira and a 1-0 loss at Vitesse Arnhem so dismal that Harry Winks looked visibly shaken, this was a new low.
It leaves Tottenham facing a fight to even qualify for the next stage, and they are now in a position where they cannot win the group. That means that if they do go through they will have to play a two-legged knockout tie in February, against one of the teams that comes third in the Europa League group stage. Either side of a trip to face champions Manchester City.
No wonder head coach Antonio Conte was so devastated. He admitted that he is “starting to understand the situation” at Tottenham, whose level he said is “not so high”.
