Antonin Kinski was brutally substituted in the 15th minute of the Champions League match between Tottenham and Atletico Madrid after the goalkeeper had two shots on goal. Caretaker manager Igor Tudor made the bold decision to bring Kinski into the team instead of Guglielmo Vicario for the first leg against Atlético.
Things got off to a bad start, with Kinski, making his Champions League debut, slipping while trying to play the ball out from the back, allowing Marcos Llorente to score the opening goal. There was another mistake in the build-up to Atlético’s second goal, this time by Micky van de Ven, who was punished by Antoine Griezmann, who compounded the misery.
There was little Kinski could do in the second run, but he was left with egg on the face again in the third. Just seconds after the restart, he skidded again, allowing Julian Alvarez to score the third run. Tudor had seen enough at that point and Vicario was immediately sent off to warm up. Heartbroken, Kinski trudged off the pitch and crashed straight down the tunnel in a harrowing scene.
As soon as the exchange between the sticks took place, the Spurs were down 4-0. Vicario showed why he should have come on from the off by stopping a stray Kevin Danso header from going into his own goal, but Robin Le Normand converted his shot from close range.
By this point, some of the Spurs fans in the Spanish capital had already been seen making their way to the exits, but the fifth goal of the game was scored during a bizarre first half. The only surprise this time was that Spurs were the scorers, with Christian Romero scoring a header to reduce the arrears.
As part of TNT Sports’ team of pundits, former Spurs goalkeeper Joe Hart said: “My heart sank in that moment. We’ve seen that many times tonight, that ruthlessness of Atletico Madrid, who slipped. It’s a terrible start…”
“It’s heartbreaking. He knows it, the players know it, he had a terrible 14 minutes and there’s no getting away from that. But Tudor didn’t even acknowledge him[on the substitute]. If it’s the management’s fault then I’m appalled.”
Steve McManaman agreed: “This is man management at its worst. The coach goes up to hug him, two or three players try to hug him, but that poor goalkeeper had a bad night. For the manager to not even acknowledge him, go and say sorry and do anything to influence the situation. It’s frigid.”
