Tottenham have put themselves in a very strong position in the Europa League Round of 16 with a 3-0 victory over Inter Milan tonight.
Gareth Bale, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Jan Vertonghen were all on target at White Hart Lane as Spurs recorded a very healthy lead ahead of the return leg at the San Siro next week.
The only dampener for Tottenham was that Bale was shown a yellow card - again for diving - meaning he will miss the trip to Milan due to suspension.
Spurs' London rivals Chelsea will have a little bit of ground to make up when they face Steaua Bucharest at Stamford Bridge next week after losing 1-0 to the Romanians at the National Arena.
Raul Rusescu converted from the penalty spot in the 34th minute after he was felled by Ryan Bertrand as the Romanian league leaders put themselves in a decent position against the reigning European champions.
Elsewhere in the Europa League, goals from Ederson and Ogenyi Onazi helped Lazio to an advantageous 2-0 win at Stuttgart, a 21st minute Cedric Carrasso own-goal gave Benfica a 1-0 home triumph over Bordeaux, Fenerbahce edged Viktoria Plzen 1-0 away from home, Levante and Rubin Kazan played out a scoreless draw as did Anzhi Makhachkala and Newcastle United.
And in Switzerland, FC Basel recorded a 2-0 victory over Zenit St Petersburg with late goals from Marcelo Diaz and Alexander Frei with the Russians seeing Carlos Neto sent off in injury-time.
The return legs of the Europa League Round of 16 stage all take place next Thursday, March 15.
2012/13 UEFA Europa League - Round of 16 first leg
Anzhi Makhachkala (RUS): 0 Newcastle United: 0 Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow - 5,000
Viktoria Plzen (CZE): 0 Fenerbahce (TUR): 1 (Pierre Webo 81') Struncovy Sady, Plzen - 11,701
Steaua Bucharest (ROM): 1 (Raul Rusescu (p) 34') Chelsea (ENG): 0 National Arena, Bucharest - 45,000
Stuttgart (GER): 0 Lazio (ITA): 2 (Ederson 21', Ogenyi Onazi 56') Mercedes-Benz Arena, Stuttgart - 28,750
Benfica (POR): 1 (Cedric Carrasso (og) 21') Bordeaux (FRA): 0 Estadio da Luz, Lisbon - 43,248
Tottenham (ENG): 3 (Gareth Bale 6', Gylfi Sigurdsson 18', Jan Vertonghen 53') Inter Milan (ITA): 0 White Hart Lane, London - 34,353
Levante (SPN): 0 (red card: Michel 55') Rubin Kazan (RUS): 0 (red card: Cristian Ansaldi 53') Estadio Ciudad de Valencia, Valencia - 13,000
FC Basel (SUI): 2 (Marceloa Diaz 82', Alexander Frei (p) 90+4') Zenit St Petersburg (RUS): 0 (red card: Carlos Luis Neto 90+3')
