Jermain Defoe surpasses Chivers' mark

JERMAIN DEFOE clearly has no intention of living in the shadows as he broke Martin Chivers' record of 22 European goals for Tottenham Hotspur.

Defoe breaks Chivers' mark

JERMAIN DEFOE clearly has no intention of living in the shadows as he broke Martin Chivers' record of 22 European goals for Tottenham Hotspur.

In so doing the England international helped the team qualify for the knockout stage of the Europa League.

The striker struck a penalty into the roof of the net, and upstaged the influential Erik Lamela who won the spot kick, and raised both arms to salute the home crowd.

Defoe revealed afterwards that he spoke to Chivers at half-time. "Chiv's a legend," the Spurs striker said. "I saw him at half-time and he said: 'If you keep on going, you'll get it.' It chilled me out a bit. It was a great night, and to win the game as well, I'm delighted."

The 31-year-old had one shot against Sheriff, of Tiraspol in Moldova, but he will remain Roberto Soldado's deputy. He missed a chance to secure the landmark strike on the stroke of half time, but Chivers was already contemplating the impending loss of his record, standing on the pitch in the interval. "I can't say that I'm not disappointed ," Chivers said. "Records are there to be broken. It will be going to no better person than Jermain. I have always sung his praises."

Defoe, who has been named by England for the friendlies against Germany and Chile in the next fortnight, did not play alongside Soldado last night (overnight) as Andre Villas-Boas resisted starting with two strikers.

Defoe's strike came after Lamela had squeezed a shot home with his left foot, at the near post, to put Tottenham into the lead on the hour mark.

Brad Friedel started in place of Hugo Lloris, rested after his head injury, and showed that age is catching up on him as he failed to hold a shot and Ismail Isa gave hope to Moldovan side, who had 20 VIPs in the directors' box but no supporters in the stands.

Friedel became the oldest player to appear in the Europa League, at the age of 42 and 173 days, breaking the record set by Sander Boschker, also a goalkeeper who is still playing for Twente, the Dutch club. Friedel had had a memorable match a week earlier, scooping the ball into his net and saving twice in the penalty shoot-out as Tottenham overcame Hull City in the Capital One Cup.

Lloris was given clearance to play, but Villas-Boas thought better even of putting his goalkeeper on the substitutes' bench, having already been criticised for allowing him to continue playing after he was knocked out against Everton four days earlier. "We gave Hugo Lloris the extra rest, bearing in mind what happened at the weekend," Villas-Boas said.

The France goalkeeper will expect to return against Newcastle United on Sunday and is in the squad for his national team for the World Cup qualifying play-off against Ukraine, the first leg of which is a week today.

Sheriff came out with purpose, but quickly sat back and played on the break, failing to test Friedel. Ricardinho's dribble sucked in the Tottenham defence and the midfielder teed up Ismail Isa, whose shot took a deflection off Younes Kaboul and clipped the near post.

Moments later, Ricardinho dragged a shot wide and Tottenham reflected on plenty of possession but just one good chance on the stroke of half-time. Gylfi Sigurdsson's cross took a faint deflection off a defender and looped invitingly across the front of the goalkeeper, where Defoe completely missed the ball and his first chance to break the club's European record.

Earlier, Moussa Dembele skipped past several half-hearted challenges and hit a shot that was palmed clear by Vjekoslav Tomic, the goalkeeper, and Erik Lamela looked astonished at not being given a penalty when he tiptoed his way into the area and was tripped by Djibril Paye, the left back.

Perhaps the referee realised his mistake as he pointed straight to the penalty spot from a similar situation after the break. Lamela waltzed into the area and was clipped by Paye's outstretched leg. Defoe converted the spot kick with aplomb, doubling the advantage given to Tottenham by Lamela seven minutes earlier. The Argentina player benefited from Christian Eriksen's intended return pass hitting Paye and dropping nicely for Lamela to sweep home. The contest should have been over but Friedel's weak parry from a shot from Cadu allowed Ismail Isa to prod home the rebound. Sheriff pressed late on, but Tottenham survived any danger.

The Times