Spurs blow two-goal lead in Olympiakos draw

Updated: May 17, 2023, 05:20 am

Olympiakos battled back from two-goals down to earn a 2-2 draw with Tottenham in their Champions League Group B opener in Athens on Wednesday night.

Olympiakos started brightly, but it was Spurs that opened the scoring in the in 26th minute when Harry Kane converted his spot kick after Yassine Meriah had tripped him from behind in the penalty area and video review confirmed the foul.

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Minutes later, Lucas Moura doubled Tottenham's lead with a thunderous right-footed strike from outside the penalty area, but the hosts struck back just before the break when Daniel Podence smashed home a fine strike of his own from a Mathieu Valbuena assist to make it 2-1 at half-time.

Valbuena then drew Olympiakos level with a spot kick of his own on 54 minutes, sending Hugo Lloris the wrong way after drawing a clumsy foul from Jan Vertonghen at the top of the penalty area.

Mathieu Valbuena converts from the penalty spot to draw Olympiakos level against Tottenham.
Mathieu Valbuena converts from the penalty spot to draw Olympiakos level against Tottenham.
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"When you go 2-0 up after 30 minutes you are in a great position, after that I thought we controlled the game whereas before we didn't play well but scored two goals," Kane said.

"The goal just before half-time changed the momentum and it's disappointing from our point of view. We have to improve. We wanted to get off to a winning start and put ourselves in a great position."

The entertaining end-to-end affair continued throughout the second half with both teams missing chances to surge into the lead as each settled for a point from their group-stage opener.

Next up for Tottenham in the Champions League is a juicy home group-stage encounter with Bayern Munich on Oct. 1, while Olympiakos are away to Red Star Belgrade on the same day.