Fri 09 March 2007, 12:00
Tottenham HotspurMartin Jol insisted it would have been 'an injustice' if we'd failed to come away from SC Braga with a win in Thursday night's UEFA Cup Round of 16 first leg.
Martin Jol insisted it would have been 'an injustice' if we'd failed to come away from SC Braga with a win in Thursday night's UEFA Cup Round of 16 first leg.
We created a host of chances in the first half only for Teemu Tainio, Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane to be denied by home keeper Paulo Santos.
We finally got our rewards for that dominance in the second half when Keane volleyed home from Aaron Lennon's flick and then Santos could only parry Lennon's shot to Steed Malbranque, who rifled into the roof of the net for a 2-0 lead with 72 minutes on the clock.
But things changed soon after that goal. Anthony Gardner was adjudged to have fouled Diego in the box and Paulo Jorge scored the rebound after Paul Robinson saved the initial spot kick for 2-1 and then Ze Carlos headed home the equaliser at the near post.
We still looked dangerous though and won it when Keane finished off a one-on-one chance in injury time from Didier Zokora's pass.
"I felt in the first half we had numerous chances to finish it off but we didn't," reflected Martin at the Estadio Municipal de Braga. "In the second half we were better but what you don't want is to concede a penalty kick when we did and then the second goal from a foul which was never a foul, so that was disappointing.
"Every break we had looked dangerous and thankfully Robbie made the difference because it would have been an injustice to finish 2-2 here.
"That would still have been a good score in an away leg in Europe but having seen this match, there was only one winner and that was Spurs.
"I was never worried though because we had the second leg at home and we should have scored three or four at least. As I said, 2-2 would have been a good result but I was a happy customer that we scored the winner.
"Braga are a very technical side but I felt we won the battle in midfield, we were aggressive and we were the better team overall."
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