Gareth Bale (left) vies for the ball with Lucio, in London, on Tuesday. (AFP)

London: Tottenham beat defending champions Inter Milan 3-1 to record one of the greatest results in the club’s history and Barcelona were also made to wait before sealing qualification in the Champions League’s knockout stage after drawing 1-1 at FC Copenhagen.

Rafael van der Vaart opened the scoring for Tottenham in the 18th minute before Man of the Match Gareth Bale set up Peter Crouch and Roman Pavlyuchenko for goals after the break.

Inter striker Samuel Eto’ had made it 2-1 with his seventh goal of the tournament but it could not stop Champions League debutants Spurs going above the Italian champions on goal difference in Group A.

Like Inter, Barcelona too would have reached the last 16 had they won but Copenhagen’s Claudemir cancelled out Lionel Messi’s goal to earn the Danish side a point in Group D.

Manchester United beat Bursaspor 3-0 to move to the brink of qualification from Group C while Lyon’s 100 percent record in Group B ended with a 3-4 defeat at Benfica, who came close to squandering a four-goal lead.

With Inter, Barcelona and Lyon all failing to win, no side is through to the knockout stage yet.

Bale terrorised Inter’s defense two weeks ago by scoring a stunning second-half hattrick when Spurs lost 4-3 at the San Siro. The Wales winger put in just as good a performance at White Hart Lane, with Inter’s Brazil right back Maicon undone time and again by Bale’s trickery and pace.

“He was amazing. They’re just doing some drug testing now — the dope testers are here, and I hope they’re testing him,” Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp joked.

Van der Vaart ran onto Luka Modric’s slipped through-ball to curl in a finish and maintain his run of scoring in every home game he’s played for Tottenham since his deadline-day move.

Bale, who ran Maicon ragged in the first half, repeated the dose after the break and laid on perfect crosses for Crouch and Pavlyuchenko to apply almost identical finishes at the far post.

“From the first to the last we played unbelievably. Pressed them, outworked them, outplayed them all night,' Redknapp said.

In the group’s other match, Nacer Chadli and Luuk de Jong scored late goals to earn FC Twente a 2-0 win over 10-man Werder Bremen and put it on five points, two behind Spurs and Inter.

Messi scored his fifth goal in this season’s Champions League, and 15th in all competitions, when he lashed in a right-foot shot that went in off the post to put three-time winner Barcelona ahead in Denmark.

But Copenhagen equalised when Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes fumbled Jesper Gronkjaer’s cross from the left and Claudemir was on hand to volley in at the far post, keeping his side a point behind the Spanish champions.

“I am really proud of the boys,” Copenhagen coach Stale Solbakken said.

Rubin Kazan and Panathinaikos earlier played out a second successive 0-0 draw to reduce their hopes of a top-two finish. (Agencies)

Tuesday’s results

Group A: Tottenham 3 Inter Milan 1; FC Twente 2 Werder Bremen 0
Group B: Benfica 4 Lyon 3; Hapoel Tel Aviv 0 Schalke 0
Group C: Manchester United 3 Bursaspor 0; Valencia 3 Rangers 0
Group D: Rubin Kazan 0 Panathinaikos 0; FC Copenhagen 1 Barcelona 1