Tottenham had to complete a second comeback in a week to secure their place in the UEFA Champions League round of 16 on a dramatic night in France.
Spurs headed into the clash against Marseille in pole position to qualify, but found themselves a goal down on the stroke of half-time after Chancel Mbemba's header found the back of the net from a corner. Hugo Lloris kept his team in the match throughout the first 45 minutes but there was nothing he could've done about the goal as the Lilywhites put in an atrocious first half performance.
Antonio Conte watched on from the stands following his red card in the 1-1 draw with Sporting Lisbon and cut an emotionless figure as Clement Lenglet popped up with a surprise equaliser from a brilliant Ivan Perisic free-kick.
READ MORE: Every word Cristian Stellini said on Son injury and what changed at half-time in Spurs win
Son Heung-min's injury is a major concern for Spurs ahead of the Premier League clash against Liverpool this weekend, but his strike partner Harry Kane was able to set up Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, who ran through to fire home past Pau Lopez with the final kick of the game and send Spurs through into the next round as group winners.
football.london takes a look at how the national media reacted to the dramatic European comeback
Tottenham's second-half show ensured their passage in the knockout stages of the Champions League with Clement Lenglet and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg both striking.
The north Londoners knew they needed to avoid defeat in France if they were to make the last 16. They also knew Antonio Conte would be watching from the stands after his red card last week. The Italian's absence didn't matter however as a greatly improved second 45 helped Tottenham save their European campaign.
A poor first-half, which saw the visitors hardly have an effort on goal, allowed Marseille to take the lead with Chancel Mbemba, formerly of Newcastle United, heading them in front to delight a partisan Stade Velodrome.
But Tottenham appeared a side reborn in the second-half and quickly levelled the contest as Lenglet nodded in from a free-kick. It stifled the rhythm of the home side and the noise of the home fans as the English side began to show their quality. The hosts missed a huge chance late on as Sead Kolasinac headed wide, but it was the visitors who bagged the three points late in stoppage time with Hojbjerg hammering home.
Tottenham are through, but the question remains: how good might they be if they ever decide to play both halves of a game of football?
Atrocious in the first-half, they rallied after half-time, equalised, hit the bar through Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg with nine minutes remaining, then scored a winning goal in the fourth and final minute of injury time when Harry Kane set free his captain again.
Hojbjerg, through one on one, buried the ball in Pau Lopez's net. Yet should it really be this hard? Eintracht Frankfurt's win in Lisbon looked to have pegged Tottenham in second place until the very last kick of Group D, which would have meant tougher tests in the round of 16. But this should have been a straightforward group to top.
Yet when the second-half began with Tottenham staring at the Europa League in the New Year, a different team emerged – one with ambition and energy, attempting to do more than throwing a blanket over the game. Where had they been for 45 minutes, when Marseille dominated, led and could have been clear were it not for the goalkeeping of Hugo Lloris? Why do Tottenham have to be backed against the wall before they start to play?
Tottenham were, frankly, useless in the first half. Docile, unimaginative, unthreatening – the best that could be said was that they were largely compact and organised in repelling Marseille. Even that limited achievement was rendered redundant however, once Marseille scored, which they did in the second of seven minutes of stoppage-time, during which the pressure and noise level from the home side and its supporters reached fresh levels of intensity.
So all of that negativity, all of that rigidity, was wasted. Kane had a shot tipped over in the seventh stoppage time minute and that was the first time Marseille goalkeeper Lopez had been threatened all game. He was probably more on edge about the loud explosions in the packed stand behind him than anything Tottenham were offering at the time.
And, despite the outcome, that really wasn't excusable. Yes, Marseille had to win or exit the competition, while Tottenham only needed a draw; but to so nakedly play for that, with forwards of the calibre of Kane and Son Heung-min on board is incredibly frustrating and wins Conte few allies.
Tottenham had done the thing they have done too readily of late and failed to show up in the first half. When they trailed at the break to Chancel Mbemba’s header, it was the least that Marseille deserved. The French club were in line for a first qualification to the knockout rounds of this competition since 2011-12.
It had been billed as a psychological test for Spurs; the din inside this cauldron was relentless. It turned into something even more in the second half. Staring at elimination, Spurs had to dig into the depths of their resolve, to show their personality. During a second half that will live long in the memories of the travelling fans, they did so. It was Clément Lenglet who found the precious equaliser, the goal that stood to carry them through as runners-up, a header from Ivan Perisic’s whipped free-kick and they had the chances to have made life much easier for themselves.
Kane had a few while Højbjerg rattled the crossbar when he ought to have scored. It was a dominant second period from Spurs when they most needed it but there were still a couple of wobbles as the end approached. This is Spurs. There had to be.
The script was there for a player with Arsenal connections to sink them because there were four in Marseille colours. Alexis Sánchez bought a yard inside the area only to see Perisic block and then, in the 88th minute, Sead Kolasinac, who had entered as a substitute, swooped at the far post to meet a free header. To wails all around, he planted it past the post.
What a test it was for Conte, partly of his temperament because he would have hated being stuck in the stands after his red card against Sporting last week. He was bold with his starting lineup, picking the one that most supporters would have wanted – no Emerson Royal or Davinson Sánchez, both Ivan Perisic and Ryan Sessegnon, an extra attacker in Lucas Moura rather than an extra midfielder. But it all seemed to be going wrong.
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