Ten-man Tottenham Hotspur fell to a 4-0 defeat to Real Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final at the Bernabeu on Tuesday.
Former Arsenal goal machine Emmanuel Adebayor gave Real an early lead and things got worse for Spurs when Peter Crouch was sent off with just 15 minutes played. Adebayor’s tenth goal in ten games against the team from North London came 12 minutes into the second half and Angel Di Maria then added a sumptuous third for Jose Mourinho’s impressive Los Blancos. Cristiano Ronaldo, who played 90 minutes despite all the will he-won’t he speculation, added a late fourth.
The evening started badly for Harry Redknapp’s side when Aaron Lennon had to be withdrawn from the starting line-up as he felt unwell. Jermaine Jenas took his place in the team and he was the man on Adebayor when Real won a fifth minute corner, which came after Ronaldo had already fired two efforts off target from distance.
The corner was swung in by Mesut Ozil, and Adebayor rose above Jenas to power a header beyond the despairing lunge of Heurelho Gomes and send the deafening home support into raptures.
Soon after Crouch rashly fouled Sergio Ramos to earn his first booking of the night and before long he would be hit with the third as well. The second had gone to Adebayor when he fouled Benoit Assou-Ekotto, but Crouch’s was more costly as he made a late and careless lunge at Marcelo and was rightly given his marching orders by German referee Felix Brych.
Gomes kept out a third Ronaldo effort as Real looked to make the extra man count before Spurs hit the target for the first time, but ex-Madrid boy Rafael Van der Vaart’s free-kick was of little difficulty to Iker Casillas.
Spurs at last began to get to grips with the game a little and a clever long throw form Gareth Bale picked out Van der Vaart in the Real area, but Ricardo Carvalho stopped him from getting a clean shot. A fine diagonal pass from Michael Dawson then sent Bale into the area, but after rounding Ramos he fired into the side-netting.
Di Maria tested Gomes before Pepe earned a booking for fouling Bale, ensuring that he will join Crouch in watching the second leg from off the field. Real continued to chase a second before the break, with Dawson getting in a great block after Marcelo picked out Adebayor. The England defender was then very lucky, however, to escape the concession of a penalty when his hand blocked another effort from Di Maria.
Spurs survived that and survived some further Real pressure to still be in at half-time with the score still at 1-0. Redknapp went looking for the away goal in the second 45 minutes though, withdrawing Van der Vaart for Jermain Defoe in the hope that fresh legs might cause Real some problems.
Ronaldo was as eager as ever to cause Spurs problems though and drove a fierce effort just wide before sticking his leg out to connect with a Marcelo shot, but only succeeding in diverting the ball left of the goal.
Spurs breaks proved to be few and far between, but Defoe’s first action saw them get clear some eight minutes into the half and resulted in Bale’s cross going out for a corner. The set-piece was cleared into the path of Assou-Ekotto, who fired an ambitious half volley goalward, but it flew just to the left.
However, soon after, Spurs suffered a hammer blow when Adebayor doubled his and Real’s tally. The visitors were snoozing as Ronaldo knocked a quick corner to Marcelo and he crossed for an unmarked Adebyor to power a superb header the right side of Gomes’s right-hand post.
Indeed, the man from Togo almost claimed a hat-trick shortly after when he got his head to a cross from sub Lasanna Diarra and Gomes was called on to make a one-handed parried save. He then saved well from Ozil too as Real looked to finish the tie off on the night.
And in truth their third goal was probably already enough for them to have done that! The hosts seized on more sloppy play from Spurs on the back of the Ozil chance, and the ball was fed to the feet of Di Maria on the right. He cut inside Assou-Ekotto and fired a magnificent left-footed effort into the far corner from just inside the area.
That super goal was Di Maria’s job done as Kaka joined Gonzalo Higuain, who had just replaced Adebayor, on the field of play. He came on just after a Xabi Alonso curled effort went wide, Real not settling for three.
And with Spurs breaks not getting very far forward the home side did finish with more than three as Kaka’s cross from the left was met with an angled volley from Ronaldo. Gomes did poorly again as it flew past him to end a miserable night for the Brazilian and his club.
Redknapp’s entertainers have climbed some pretty steep mountains in this competition already this season, but they have not yet tackled an obstacle as seismic as the one they now face. The ‘Special One’ meanwhile has nine and a half toes in another Champions League semi-final.