Image Credit: Evening Standard
By Lee Clow 22 October 2020 | Europa League
Tottenham kicked off their Europa League group stage campaign with a comfortable 3-0 victory over LASK at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Following their disappointing draw against West Ham United on the weekend, Jose Mourinho’s men went into the game looking for an instant response.
Tottenham started the brighter of the two sides with their passing and attack looking sharp.
Carlos Vinicius, Tottenham’s new striker, had the game’s first chance as he connected from Matt Doherty’s cross. The former Benfica man managed to leap highest in the air, but he could not direct his header with the ball falling wide of the goal.
After 17 minutes, Tottenham deservedly broke the deadlock through Lucas Moura. A lovely ball from the back, by captain Ben Davies, was taken down excellently by Vinicius, before the Brazilian fed his compatriot Moura, who stuck his effort away nicely past the LASK goalkeeper.
Following the goal, the home side continued to assert their dominance as they looked for a second.
It did not take long for Spurs to get their second as Andres Andrade diverted the ball into his own net. In the build-up of the goal, Sergio Reguilon and Erik Lamela combined well before the latter fed Gareth Bale who’s cross towards Vinicius found the boot of Andrade.
Moments later, Tottenham came close to a third goal as Lamela was played through. The Argentine skipped past a couple of defenders before striking on goal, but LASK goalkeeper, Alexander Schlager, fortunately managed to collect the ball on the goal line after initially letting the shot go through his hands.
Moments before half time, LASK had a chance to reduce the deficit as Spurs’ became sloppy. Pierre-Emile Höjbjerg cheaply lost the ball on the edge of the area allowing Andreas Gruber to pick up the ball and fire towards goal, but Joe Hart excellently dived well to tip the ball wide of the goal.
Tottenham went into the break with a comfortable lead with very few danger signs that LASK would get back into the game.
In the second half, Tottenham came fast out the blocks once again and Lamela came inches away from scoring their third goal of the game. Some great hold up play by Vinicius led to Lamela picking the ball up in the area and be allowed to strike on goal, but the Spurs number 11 saw his effort drill wide.
On the hour mark, Bale, who was making hist first start for Tottenham in over seven years, was replaced by Son Heung-Min, allowing the Welshman to take a rest for the remainder of the game.
After a long spell, Spurs came close again as Son fired over from close range. In build-up, Moura made a darting run down the right before finding Dele Alli in the box, who flicked it to Son, but the South Korean got under the ball and sent it over.
Following this, it was Alli’s turn to come close for Spurs as he was played through excellently by Vinicius. The man who has been left out in all of Spurs’ Premier League games this season looked certain to score, but he was denied well by Schlager in the LASK net.
In the final six minutes, Tottenham did eventually find the back of the net once again and to no surprise it was Son who scored. Doherty, down the right, clipped a great ball into Vinicius, who then excellently cushioned a header into the path of Son, allowing the South Korean to place his effort into the bottom corner.
Following his good debut performance and two assists, Vinicius was taken off in the final minutes allowing Jack Clarke to make his competitive debut for Spurs.
In the final seconds, Clarke came very close to scoring a fourth goal, but his bullet strike just beat the post, keeping the scores at three.
The full-time whistle blew, and Spurs comfortably took the three points in the opening game of the group stage.
What’s next?
Tottenham return to Premier League action on Monday as they take on Burnley at Turf Moor.
Spurs’ second group game in the Europa League takes place on October 29 as they travel to Belgium to face Antwerp.
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