Tottenham 1-0 Villarreal: Goalkeeping blunder hands Frank first Champions League win
Tottenham saw off Villarreal 1-0 in their opening Champions League fixture, but they owed their win to a blunder from Luiz Junior.
Villarreal goalkeeper Luiz Junior scored a calamitous own goal as Tottenham claimed a 1-0 win in a low-key Champions League clash.
Thomas Frank's maiden Champions League match as a coach got off to the ideal start just four minutes in, when Luiz Junior somehow bundled the ball into his own net after coming to gather a straightforward Lucas Bergvall cross.
Yet Spurs failed to build on that gift during a clash lacking in cutting-edge quality at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Villarreal, who had never beaten an English side in the Champions League in 14 attempts prior to kick-off, came out after the interval looking the more threatening of the two sides, but were still unable to register a shot on target during the entire 90 minutes.
The visitors' best chance came after Micky van de Ven bundled new signing Georges Mikautadze over on the edge of the Tottenham penalty area in the 84th minute.
However, former Arsenal man Nicolas Pepe sent the subsequent free-kick wide of Guglielmo Vicario's post, sparing Van de Ven's blushes.
Data Debrief: Spurs find a way in tale of two toothless teams
Spurs attempted just nine shots, which proved the lowest total for any team across Tuesday's matches. Indeed, there was only one attempt on target across the entire game, from both teams combined.
It is only the second Champions League match on record involving a Premier League or LaLiga team to have one or fewer shots on target, the first being Chelsea’s 0-0 draw with Sparta Prague in November 2003 (one).
Tottenham have won only two of their seven opening matches in European Cup/Champions League campaigns, drawing two and losing three. Both victories came when they played their opening game at home: a 3-1 win against Borussia Dortmund in 2017-18 and a 2-0 win over Marseille in 2022-23.
In a game of few great performances, Pedro Porro once again turned in a standout display for Spurs, registering the most final third entries (14) and passes in the final third (20) of any player on the pitch. He also finished joint-highest for clearances (four) and total crosses (four).
