Mourinho defiant after Spurs’ loss; Atalanta fairytale continues

LONDON: RB Leipzig marked their first appearance in the Champions League knockout round with a deserved 1-0 victory at last season’s runners-up Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday as their impressive campaign continued.

Timo Werner’s 58th-minute penalty after a foul by Ben Davies on Konrad Laimer was enough for Julian Nagelsmann’s Bundesliga high-flyers to take a narrow lead into the second leg on March 10, although they might rue not putting the last-16 tie to bed.

Tottenham, without injured strikers Harry Kane and Son Heung-min, were largely outplayed and will need the sort of heroics they produced at Manchester City and Ajax Amsterdam last season to keep their European quest alive.

But for inspired keeper Hugo Lloris and wayward finishing from Leipzig, they would be facing an even tougher task in the return leg.

“Leipzig are a very, very good team with a lot of energy. We had some situations that we could have managed better,” Lloris said. “We’re not really happy with the result, but we did it last season — let’s hope we try to create another story.”

Tottenham did rally late on as Leipzig appeared to settle for a narrow win and the hosts came close to equalising with the impressive Giovani Lo Celso curling a free kick against the post and Lucas Moura heading over.

But Leipzig were worthy winners and their meteoric rise since being formed 10 years ago should see them gatecrash their way into the quarter-finals of Europe’s elite tournament.

“The first 10 minutes were very noisy, very loud. In the end, it was a pleasure to be part of this game,” Nagelsmann, in his first season in charge, told reporters.

The first German club to play at Tottenham’s magnificent new stadium were Bayern Munich in October and they marked their visit with a 7-2 humiliation of their hosts.

Leipzig, one point behind leaders Bayern in the Bundesliga, attacked the Tottenham defence with similar relish and could have scored three times in the opening three minutes.

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