spurs rein in effervescent basel to keep tie level
murat yakin's men scored two away goals at white hart lane but were denied a first-leg advantage by emmanuel adebayor and gylfi sigurdsson.
tottenham hotspur fc came from two goals down to earn a first-leg draw against an outstanding fc basel 1893 side, who will be confident of securing the club's first european semi-final participation in a week's time.
ıt became clear to spurs early that it would be no easy task to make the last four of the uefa europa league as valentin stocker and fabian frei stunned white hart lane with two first-half away goals. emmanuel adebayor pulled the hosts back into it, and gylfi sigurdsson's deflected effort after the restart means andré villas-boas' men go to switzerland on level terms.
murat yakin's men were quick to show they were not in the last eight to make up the numbers, as a rapid flurry of attacks signalled their intent. fabian schär and marco streller saw powerful efforts saved, before markus steinhöfer volleyed a fraction over.
however, the visitors' industry reaped its reward, two goals in four minutes silencing the home fans. stocker was on hand to poke in after streller's effort came back off a post on the half-hour, before a corner was flicked on to frei, who buried a low header past brad freidel.
stocker wriggled clear but his dinked finish just slipped wide as basel attacked at will. however, spurs responded before the break. adebayor halved the deficit when he prodded in a deflected effort from scott parker, who then shot wide with goal gaping.
the crowd urged the premier league side forward after the interval, but there was no backward step from basel, for whom the lightning mohamed salah was denied by friedel when clear on goal. yann sommer then flung himself to his left to keep out a wicked kyle naughton half-volley, but could do nothing when sigurdsson's shot flicked off schär after the ıceland midfielder cut in from the left.
the action did not let up, with salah and substitute jacques zoua firing narrowly wide for the swiss champions. spurs, meanwhile, finished with nine men as william gallas and gareth bale went off injured before full time.
