Spurs looked like they would reach the last eight before the playmaker sprang to life and Chiellini defended for his life
For an hour at Wembley, with the quarter-finals of the Champions League beckoning and the scalp of Juventus already partially hacked from its canary‑yellow neck, Tottenham found themselves playing like a team in the process of becoming something else, of forgetting, just for an hour, to be Spurs.
It will be a crushing disappointment Mauricio Pochettino’s team failed to hold their momentum long enough to see out this tie. But it is also tribute to the pure footballing will of opponents who seemed at times on the verge of being outmuscled; to the transformative power of a match-changing foul on Dele Alli; and to the incisive brilliance of Paulo Dybala, who took his one chance to decide the tie.
Related: Juventus’s Higuaín and Dybala send Tottenham spiralling out of Europe
Related: Giorgio Chiellini says Spurs lacked mental toughness to beat Juventus
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