Spurs hero gets rival praise

Tottenham Hotspur star Dimitar Berbatov was given a standing ovation from the Besiktas fans following his performance in the UEFA Cup tie this week.

Manager Martin Jol said: “To be applauded off the pitch by them is a mark of respect for my team — the Besiktas fans are terrific.

“Dimitar showed real flashes of his quality and I thought we could have had more goals.

“When we went ahead through Hossam Ghaly, I thought we would silence the crowd but I know now that it is impossible.

“They just kept on singing their songs. It was wonderful to hear.

“Was that our best performance of the season? We played well in Prague against Slavia but yes that was better than that.

“Robbie Keane had three or four chances to score but the ball just wouldn’t run for him again.

“What was on our minds is no English team has lost here against Besiktas and we didn’t want to be the first.

“Overall we were just too strong for them even though I had to make a last-minute change and play Tom Huddlestone when Didier Zokora went down ill.

“When I was selecting my team I had one eye on the Sunday game against West Ham but I just had to play my best team tonight and it paid off.”

Besiktas boss Jean Tigana added: “We came up against a very good Tottenham team. They were strong and focused. Spurs were better than us — it was as simple as that.

“They showed a terrific attitude out here. Berbatov was terrific. He was very difficult for us to handle and he gave my centre-halves a tough time.

“When you have a player of his quality in your team it makes all the difference.”