UEFA Europa League 2013: It’s a day for miracle goals

Radamel Falcao scored in the 84th minute and Kazan’s César was red carded four minutes later, but it wasn’t enough to save the defending champions from exiting the tournament. Atletico had plenty of chances but by the time Falcao’s free kick beat Sergei Ryzhikov, it was too little too late. Ryzhikov was outstanding for Rubin Kazan making nine saves.

Basel didn’t seem interested in doing anything more than defending their lead from the first leg but things still got wild late. After a fairly dull hour, Dnipro’s hopes seemed squashed when Nikola Kalinic was shown a straight red card in the 63rd minute. Less than ten minutes later, Fabian Frei threw Dnipro a lifeline committing a handball in the box. Frei was sent off and Yevhen Seleznyov scored the penalty, bringing his side back within a goal. Dnipro’s hopes were finally extinguished in the 81st minute when Roman Zozulya fouled Valentin Stocker in the box and Fabian Schar buried his penalty attempt.

That left Spurs the side needing to score, and under the pressure, the fluency quickly seemed to evaporate from their performance. The rest of the half saw few chances, with Bale looking out of sorts - even when having a poor game, the Welshman still looks dangerous, but his runs ended too often with the ball overhit, and Tottenham’s midfield were struggling to pass their way through the massed Lyon ranks.

With their creativity and vision failing them, Lewis Holtby did resort to one long-range effort in particular which came close to putting them back in the lead, but his effort from outside the area was pushed into the post by Remy Vercoutre, and the half ended 1-0 to the hosts.