Lucas banishes his Nou Camp demons

What a contrast of emotions for Lucas Moura. From footballing despair to joy, from zero to hero. One thing’s for sure, the Brazilian maestro will never forget his last two visits to the Nou Camp.

Turn the clock back to February and March, 2017 and Lucas, then at Paris St Germain, was involved in one of the most incredible Champions League encounters ever seen.

PSG produced a stunning display to win the first leg of the last 16 tie 4-0 in France but Barcelona came roaring back to lead the second leg 3-0 at the Nou Camp. PSG then scored, meaning Barca needed three more goals to go through. They duly delivered by scoring in the 88th, 91st and 95th minutes to win 6-5 on aggregate.

Lucas started that second leg - you can barely imagine how he and the PSG players felt - but here was his chance to banish some personal demons.

He entered the fray on 71 minutes with us trailing 1-0 but still going through. We needed to match Inter’s result against PSV to progress and the Italians were also 1-0 down. But minutes later, the news filtered through that Mauro Icardi had levelled in Milan - we needed a goal.

Just two minutes later, Lucas looked like he’d done it only to see his point-blank header clawed away by Barca’s outstanding goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen.

Was it going to be more heartbreak for Moura? Not this time...

With five minutes remaining, we moved the ball from back to front, Christian Eriksen picked out Erik Lamela, he found Harry Kane who crossed perfectly for Lucas to convert from six yards, a huge, huge goal to send us through to the knockout stage of the Champions League.

“It was a very important goal and I’m so happy to score here in the Nou Camp in the Champions League and help my team-mates to qualify,” reflected Lucas.

“It was an amazing moment. The last time here was really sad for me (referencing PSG’s 6-1 defeat) and this is really different.

“In the second half we did very well. We had many chances to score. We could win. It was a deserved result. After the game we didn’t know what the Inter result was and didn’t know if I could celebrate! I waited with my team-mates to see and when they said to me it was 1-1 and I saw the fans happy, I knew we’d qualified. It was a very happy night for me, an amazing moment.”

It’s been quite a journey in Group B. Defeats in our opening games against Inter and Barca left us with a mountain to climb and a draw in PSV had pundits seeing qualification as ‘mission impossible’.

We responded by digging out late wins against PSV and Inter at Wembley to go back above Inter and leave the scenario of having to match their result in the Nou Camp. We left it late again, but Lucas made sure we got to the last 16.

He added: “It was a difficult group and we’ve showed that we are strong and that we can go ahead. Like I always said, I believe in my team-mates. We will do our best to continue in this competition and to look for our dream.

“I’m so happy as well and proud to play here at Tottenham, an amazing club, an amazing moment and I’d like to say thank-you to everyone.”