On-loan French defender has class and pedigree that stood him in good stead in a season when he gave away four penalties
One may be regarded as misfortune, two looks like carelessness and so what of four? It was March 2021 and Clément Lenglet had just conceded another penalty for Barcelona, this one in the Champions League last-16, second-leg exit against Paris Saint-Germain, the team that he supported as a boy.
The decision was harsh, picked out by the VAR, Lenglet having caught Mauro Icardi, even though the PSG striker was getting nowhere near to a low cross from the left. It seemed to sum up how Lenglet’s luck had turned, together with that of Barcelona. The central defender, who is on a season-long loan at Tottenham, had been all about low-key reliability since his arrival at the Camp Nou from Sevilla in 2018 for €35m, a player that you did not always notice and for the right reasons.
