Mauro Icardi's Gut-Punch Volley Made Tottenham Puke All Over Themselves

Even in this new Mauricio Pochettino era of success, Spurs haven’t fully cured their Spursiness. Over the past few years Tottenham have been at their most Spursy in the Champions League, and today’s tournament-opening match against Inter was no exception.

Tottenham were dominant for long stretches of the match, and got the first goal of the game from a deflected Christian Eriksen shot in the 53rd minute. For a while there they looked even stronger after scoring, especially once the scorching hot Lucas Moura came on about an hour into the match.

Nevertheless, Spurs never found the all-important second goal, and Inter’s late pressure finally burst through the Tottenham defense. There’s not much you can do with an outrageous volley hit this well:

Mauro Icardi’s 85th minute equalizer was soon followed up with a Matías Vecino winner in stoppage time. Inter’s players and fans predictably lost their minds after securing such a huge, fortunate result—an especially big one when you consider that Inter and Spurs will probably be duking it out all group stage to wrap up the second knockout spot behind Barcelona—and Tottenham fans looked on in disappointment as their team, hunched over in that too familiar pose of agonizing defeat, yakked up what could’ve been a big win in typical Spurs fashion.