Tottenham stars woken up by Marseille ultras setting off fireworks at 1.30am
Tottenham stars were woken in the early hours of Tuesday morning by Marseille ultras determined to give their side every advantage in tonight's crucial Champions League clash.
Antonio Conte 's men travel to the south of France knowing a point will guarantee their place through in the knockout stages of the competition. However, the Ligue 1 outfit are banking on making their home advantage count by securing the three points required to reach the last-16 for the first time since since 2012.
Buoyed by the prospect of condemning Tottenham to the Europa League for the rest of the season – after all, Marseille stars Alexis Sanchez, Matteo Guendouzi, Sead Kolasinac and Nuno Tavares have all featured for Arsenal – Marseille fans spent the night trying to disrupt the sleep of Spurs' first-team stars.
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Footage captured by Sky Sports shows fireworks exploding above Tottenham's team hotel in the early hours of Tuesday morning, with reports that the rowdy ultras let off the explosions at 1.30am and 4.30am. On a lively Halloween night in Marseille, where November 1st is a dedicated national holiday, the deafening booms are understood to have woken up several first-team players.
The disruption follows on from a fiery affair at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last week when Antonio Conte was shown a late red card for his vociferous protests against a disallowed goal from Harry Kane deep into stoppage time.
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As a result, the Italian is banned from the dressing room and the dugout at the Orange Velodrome this evening, with assistant manager Cristian Stellini taking temporary charge.
"He [Conte] will sit next to Gianluca [Tottenham's Technical and Analytics Coach, and also his brother] for sure," Stellini answered when quizzed by reporters on where Conte would be located during the game.
"I don't know where. He will be here at the stadium. He will work with us until we arrive here and then we have to stop the communication and then he will stay close to Gianluca.
"We have prepared all the strategies and our strategies are clear. We have to play our match at the best and we all have to do something more to fill the gap."
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