{"id":73570,"date":"2014-12-12T06:00:56","date_gmt":"2014-12-12T06:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=73570"},"modified":"2014-12-11T22:41:57","modified_gmt":"2014-12-11T22:41:57","slug":"tottenham-lost-floodlight-failures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=73570","title":{"rendered":"Tottenham lost after floodlight failures"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tottenham missed the chance to top their Europa League group as they fell to a narrow defeat against Besiktas.<\/p>\n

The match was marred by long stoppages as the floodlights failed twice in the Ataturk Olympic Stadium.<\/p>\n

Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino said: “It is difficult to explain [the floodlight failures]. We had a chat with the referee and you need to accept the situation.<\/p>\n

“It’s frustrating if that happens, it was laughable. It’s not good for reputation of the competition.”<\/p>\n

Pochettino’s side dominated the first period, with Nacer Chadli having a goal ruled out and Roberto Soldado missing an excellent chance.<\/p>\n

But the hosts improved in the second half and Cenk Tosun scored the decisive goal from Olcay Sahan’s low cross.<\/p>\n

It was the second straight Europa League match in which Spurs have had to contend with temporary abandonments, after their game against Partizan was halted three times due to pitch invasions.<\/p>\n

On that occasion, Tottenham kept their composure to win, but in Istanbul they could not find the goals needed to retain their advantage at the top of the group.<\/p>\n

It means they could face one of the Europa League group winners or seeded Champions League teams in the next round – including Zenit St Petersburg, managed by former Spurs boss Andre Villas-Boas.<\/p>\n

The game was first disrupted after eight minutes – with fans creating an improvised illumination with their smartphones during the ensuing stoppage.<\/p>\n

When the players returned to the pitch, Spurs – who welcomed back defender Kyle Walker after nine months out with an abdominal injury – seized the ascendancy and fashioned several good chances.<\/p>\n

Soldado spurned a golden opportunity when he scuffed a Younes Kaboul knockdown straight at Tolga Zengin, before Nacer Chadli was denied a goal due to a marginal, but correct offside decision.<\/p>\n

Besiktas were missing leading goalscorer Demba Ba through injury and they appeared toothless during the first half, but after the interval their back-up strikers proved their worth.<\/p>\n

Tosun thundered a superb effort against the crossbar but Mauricio Pochettino’s side did not heed the warning and two minutes later they were behind.<\/p>\n

From Gokhan Tore’s cross, Sahan knocked the ball across the six-yard box and Tosun converted.<\/p>\n

Former Fulham winger Kerim Frei then wasted a golden chance to settle the match, firing into the side netting after a superb one-two with Jose Sosa.<\/p>\n

The lights went out again after a minute of injury time, but Spurs could not find a crucial equaliser when the match briefly resumed.<\/p>\n

\""It<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Source: BBC<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tottenham missed the chance to top their Europa League group as they fell to a narrow defeat against Besiktas. The match was marred by long stoppages as the floodlights failed twice in the Ataturk Olympic Stadium. Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino said: “It is difficult to explain [the floodlight failures]. We had a chat with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":73571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[29,3],"class_list":["post-73570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dr-mahamudu-bawumia","tag-ghana-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/73571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}