When Tottenham were knocked out of the Champions League in the group stage before Christmas, some hoped they would give the Europa League a go this season.
And in fairness, Mauricio Pochettino put out a strong team in both Round of 32 legs against Belgian side Gent.
But it wasn’t to be as Spurs followed up a 1-0 defeat in Belgium with a 2-2 draw at Wembley, signalling the end of this season’s Europa League journey.
Christian Eriksen opened the scoring, but that was soon cancelled out by a Harry Kane own goal. Dele Alli’s red card didn’t help matters.
Victor Wanyama gave Tottenham hope after the break but Gent scored again to pile the misery on the hosts. Here’s how Twitter reacted to the result and performance.
Spurs out of Europe so now Spurs can focus on qualifying for Europe.
— Ross. (@RossTweeting) February 23, 2017
Dele Alli owes his team-mates (and the supporters) a huge apology. His brittle temper cost Spurs their place in Europe. #TOTGEN
— Uncle Norman Giller (@NormanGiller) February 23, 2017
Bottom line this 10 man team did enough. But were unlucky. Played their hearts out. Dele stays on. We win 4-1
— Vass Koni (@vkon1) February 23, 2017
Again question their mental strength. Everybody else brings their A game to Wembley. We turn up and shit ourselves
— General Burkinshaw (@TsideSpurs) February 23, 2017
#thfc Actually there was nothing wrong with that performance in the second half. Spurs unlucky. Off nights for Kane & Dier; Wambele superb.
— Dan Kilpatrick (@Dan_KP) February 23, 2017
Imagine saying that was unlucky. We lost to GENT over 2 legs. It's embarrassing and nothing less. Absolutely bloody awful.
— COYS News (@CoysNews) February 23, 2017
Not moaning but Dele cost us this tie. Im proud of that display just wasn't our night. Any other night we could have won 5-2.
— Eric Chakma (@EricYid) February 23, 2017
I appreciate some fans don’t value the EL, or would prefer to finish 2nd in the league, but I just want to see this side win something.
— Andrew Gaffney (@GaffneyVLC) February 23, 2017
At risk of being 'that guy', thought Spurs played really well this evening. Not a typical big game / Wembley screw-up. Except for one guy!
— Jack Pitt-Brooke (@JackPittBrooke) February 23, 2017
Thought that was a very slick second half performance ruined by terrible finishing & some great last ditch defending. Kane & Eriksen guilty.
— Chris Miller (@WindyCOYS) February 23, 2017
I was once in a head on collision and thought I was going to die and honestly it was less scary than Tottenham defending a set piece
— Billie (@Billie_T) February 23, 2017
Probably against Twitter rules, but I thought we played really well considering we were down to ten men. Annoying to be out, but I'll live.
— Shelley Johnson (@shelleyj89) February 23, 2017