Antonio Conte celebrated Tottenham’s winner in Marseille wildly on Tuesday night - despite being surrounded by fans of the home side.
The Spurs boss was serving a touchline ban after his red card in the fallout of the previous week’s draw against Sporting Lisbon and thus spent the 90 minutes in the stands at the Stade Velodrome. He duly saw his side stage a dramatic comeback to secure a decisive victory to secure their Champions League Round of 16 qualification, including a last-minute winner.
Chancel Mbemba’s header on the stroke of half-time had given the home side a deserved lead in a scoreline which would have seen Spurs crash out of the competition. However, Clement Lenglet levelled the score with a header before Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s dramatic last-gasp strike as Marseille pushed for a winner.
It was a difficult night for Tottenham due to the difficulty of the fixture and the significance of the outcome, with Conte’s instructions to his team being majorly complicated as his assistant Cristian Stellini oversaw first-team affairs from the touchline.
This was a turbulent group stage for Spurs, who suffered a tough defeat away in Lisbon against Sporting while also dropping points in their away fixture at Frankfurt. The heartache of seeing Harry Kane’s last-minute winner dramatically ruled out at home to Sporting in the penultimate matchday meant that a defeat on the final day could see them finish bottom of the group.
Stellini explained after the game: "Performance-wise…we have to analyse that. We repeat the same routine of the last three or four games, didn’t start well in the first half. We didn’t use power or intensity in the first half. We let them play too much and we lose the pitch, they have the control of the game.
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“After, in the second half when we changed to another solution, we had more control of the game. We had a good second half, I think. I enjoy when we win. These guys deserve to win because we are a good team, we have to show for 90 minutes and we have to work again to try our best and not to lose one (goal) after every game.”
Speaking of Conte, the No.2 added: “I spoke to Antonio. He is tired, because the game while he is in the crowd is not normal and he wastes a lot of energy.
"It is better to stay on the touchline because you leave the game like the players are doing.”
The victory for Spurs ensures that they will advance through to the Round of 16 of the Champions League as group winners, meaning they will play a runner-up in the next round. That means they will avoid Bayern Munich and likely clubs such as Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain.
