Young Boys stun “sluggish” Tottenham

Senad Lulic celebrates giving Young Boys the lead Keystone

Underdogs Young Boys of Bern have beaten Tottenham Hotspur in the first leg of the final qualifying match of the Champions League, 3:2.

At one point the Swiss team were leading 3:0.

Tuesday’s match was played in Bern’s Stade de Suisse before a capacity crowd of 31,275. A swissinfo journalist at the game described the atmosphere as “electric”.

“Young Boys played really well against a sluggish Tottenham,” she said. “It was only in the second half that Tottenham became more focussed and wore the Swiss team down until they managed the all-important second goal.”

The Bernese team opened the score with a goal from Lulic just four minutes into the game, and had netted all three of their goals – the other two coming from Bienvenu and Hochstrasser – before half time.

Tottenham started their fight back just before the half time whistle, with a goal from Bassong in the 42nd minute.

The final goal came from Pavlyuchenko in the 83rd minute.

Although Spurs were the favourites, Young Boys had already caused an upset when they beat the Turkish team Fenerbahce 3-2 on aggregate earlier this month to set up the Spurs game.

The second leg will be played in White Hart Lane on August 25.

swissinfo.ch