2  Mário FERNANDES
24  Vasili BEREZUTSKI  (  6  Aleksei BEREZUTSKI 46)
  4  Sergei IGNASHEVICH
42  Georgi SCHENNIKOV

  3  Pontus WERNBLOOM
25  Roman EREMENKO     
17  Aleksandr GOLOVIN
  7  Zoran TOSIC  (66  Bibras NATCHO  72)

  8  Georgi MILANOV

  9  Lacina TRAORE

Unused subs: 
  1  Sergei CHEPCHUGOV
14  Kirill NABABKIN
23  Carlos STRANDBERG
72  Astemir GORDYUSHENKO
 

16  Kieran TRIPPIER
  5  Jan VERTONGHEN
  4  Toby ALDERWEIRELD
33  Ben DAVIES

12  Victor WANYAMA     
20  DELE Alli  (28  Harry WINKS  82)

11  Erik LAMELA
23  Christian ERIKSEN
  7  Heung-Min SON 
  9  Vincent JANSSEN  (14  Georges-Kevin N'KOUDOU  67)

Unused subs: 
13  Michel VORM
38  Cameron CARTER-VICKERS
  2  Kyle WALKER
27  Kevin WIMMER
25  Josh ONOMAH
 

In form Heung-Min Son was the match winner once again, with a single strike in the second half to give Tottenham their first Champions League win this season and to put them back in the hunt for a place in the group that would take them through to the knock out stages of the competition.

Tottenham started confidently, but it was CSKA who had a couple of dangerous positions, attacking from wide on either side, but the moves came to nothing, with some good blocking as shots came in.  The home team almost go through in the 17th minute, when Dele Alli lost the ball just inside his own half and it was worked to Lacina Traore, who ran and Toby Alderweireld used his body to show the forward away from goal and the Spurs defender put the ball into touch.
 
Christian Eriksen tried a couple of efforts form long range, which went a long way over the bar, before a long free-kick caused a bit of panic in the Spurs box, with Lloris coming for it and not getting it.  The ball bobbled about the box and was finally cleared.
 
Eriksen almost picked out Alli's run between two CSKA defenders, but the ball skipped away from the midfielder just as he tried to reach it.  Tosic, who used to play for Manchester United, almost broke the deadlock, when a ball across was only cleared to the edge of the box, where Tosic tried to bend the ball around Vertonghen into the top corner, but over-cooked it by about a yard.  Eremenko showed a neat bit of skill to keep the ball in tight to the side-line, but he tried to catch Lloris out at his near post and the keeper was equal to it.
 
35 minutes in, a scrappy passage of play led to the ball running to Alli on the edge of the box and his shot after moving the ball from left foot to right, ended with the ball striking the bar on the way over.  Then Janssen made a good run to nudge the ball over the keeper and in, but he had gone a bit too soon and was offside.  Alderweireld had a header straight at Akinfeev saved and then Alli rose at the far post from a right wing cross from Eriksen.  While chances were coming, there was not a lot of difficulty in what they were asking from the goalkeeper.
 
The half ended with Tottenham having had 70% possession, but it is what you make of it rather than how much of the ball you have.  Both sides had one shot on target, so it was quite even on those stats.  There were only two changes in the starting line-up from Middlesbrough and Pochettino made no alterations at half-time.  A like for like substitution took place for CSKA at half-time with the identical Berezutski twins swapping places.  Five minutes in, after Spurs had held the ball well, Son was sent away, but could only pull it back for Lamela, who couldn't wriggle past a couple of defenders and then CSKA broke, with Traore getting a ball in low from the left and Tosic hitting the ball first time and over the bar.
 
Sonny had another shooting chance when Spurs broke away, curling a shot just wide of Akinfeev's right hand post.  It was a period when Spurs should have wrapped the game up.  A corner won by substitute Georges-Kevin N'Koudou's trickery was poorly cleared and Traore's touch took the ball to Lamela, whose shot took a deflection and trickled past the near post with Akinfeev going the other way.  After a chance for Lamela was saved and then the Argentinian threaded ball to Son, who slid the ball under the keeper and it went slowly into the net to give Spurs a 71st minute lead.  It had been coming, so the team finally made their possession count.
 
A couple of minutes later, Son found himself in on goal, as the ball came off a defender, but his shot was partially blocked and went wide to his left, where Alli threw himself at it, with his header being blocked.  N'Koudou was terrifying the defence on the left wing, winning a free-kick when he flicked the ball up and a defender handled.  Eriksen took it and swung it in, with Alderweireld and Alli going for it and a touch would have taken it past the keeper, who got two fists to it and punched clear, although an offside flag was up.
 
With ten minutes left, Eremenko stung Lloris' hands with a 25 yard shot, but Hugo got his hands behind it above his head to keep it out.  But the Russian side were leaving gaps at the back as they threw people forward to try and salvage something from the match.  They almost achieved that when Fernandes went up the right wing and firstly, N'Koudou performed a clean tackle on hi in the box, then he got to the dead ball line in the next move, thumping a low ball fiercely across the face of goal with Traore unable to get a touch on it.

Tottenham's game management allowed them to move the ball forward in the space afforded them and the final whistle came as a relief to the players and the small crowd of fans in the top tier of the stand.  It was a hard earned win, with some loose play in the early stages and lots of openings missed, always making the single goal lead a precarious one.  As it was, CSKA were not that much of a threat and the chances they had failed to hit the target mostly.  With another away game against Bayer Leverkusen to come, it sets that game up nicely, as they drew at home to Monaco tonight and Spurs move second above them.

The team appear to be learning quickly, but they need to convert more of their opportunities, as better teams than CSKA will punish them if they are not well ahead.

Pete Moss