Tottenham stutter as RB Leipzig earn slender first leg advantage

Tottenham gave themselves some work to do in the second leg of their Champions League clash with RB Leipzig by losing the first leg 1-0.

Leipzig were the stronger side throughout, although they could not score from open play.

In the end, it took a powerful Timo Werner penalty to separate the sides, after Ben Davies had committed a foul.

Spurs will now prepare for the second leg knowing they must score in Germany to stand any chance of going through.

Spurs’ run to the final last season was full of great escapes and comeback wins and they will need another after the Bundesliga side earned a deserved win in their first ever knockout game in this competition.

It also sees 32-year-old Leipzig coach Julian Nagelsmann, who has been dubbed ‘Baby Mourinho’ and is a rising star of European football, gain the edge over the man he has been named after.

But Spurs boss Jose Mourinho will claim this was not a fair fight as he was without two of his best attacking players, with the loss Son Heung-min on the eve of the match adding to that of Harry Kane.

The defeat would have been much worse had Hugo Lloris not produced a number of vital saves to keep Leipzig at bay, while Spurs struggled for clear opportunities at the other end.

Giovani Lo Celso had the best of them as his free-kick was turned on to the post, but it was a frustrating night for Mourinho.

Spurs will look to last season’s semi-final, where they turned around a similar first-leg defeat to Ajax with a dramatic night in Amsterdam, and there is the sense that something similar will be required in Leipzig on March 10.