Image Credit: 90min
By Lee Clow
06 October 2019 | Champions League
Tottenham won their first away game in 183 days as they overturned Red Star Belgrade 0-4 in the Champions League group stage.
Giovani Lo Celso scored on his competitive debut before Heung-Min Son scored two, while Christian Eriksen got the other, as Tottenham ran out 0-4 winners against an off-key Red Star.
Going into the game, Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino made five changes with Juan Foyth, Eric Dier, Danny Rose, Lo Celso and Harry Kane coming into the team. With the many changes, the game started slowly but Spurs soon gained control of the match as they bossed possession.
Son had a great chance to score when Spurs broke on Red Star, but the South Korean’s shot just nestled past the post. Moments later, it was Red Star’s chance to score when Milan Pavkov managed to sneak past the Spurs defence, but his effort was superbly saved by the legs of Spurs keeper Paulo Gazzaniga.
After a lengthy spell of continuous pressure, Spurs eventually broke the deadlock with a bizarre pinball like goal. Lo Celso cleverly nicked back the ball and broke on the Red Star defence before playing in Kane who fired onto the upright. The ball then rebounded back into Son who’s following shot was parried. Dele Alli kept the ball alive and hung it up to Kane who volleyed across the box to Son who smashed the bar from close range. The ball then pinned back to Lo Celso who fired into the roof of the net to finally give Spurs the lead in Belgrade.
Minutes before half time, Red Star had their own pinball experience as they almost drew level through Rajiv van La Parra. Gazzaniga came to Spurs' rescue as he tipped the Red Star attacker’s near-post drive onto the frame of the goal before Davinson Sanchez's blushes were spared by the crossbar after he unintentionally diverted the ball towards his own goal.
After the break, Spurs pushed on and soon increased their lead after a stunning counterattack. Tanguy Ndombele and Alli combined excellently before the former slid in Son who smashed the ball into the back of the net leaving the goalkeeper with no chance. Instead of celebrating, Son clasped his hands and bowed his head in tribute of Andre Gomes who was injured following Son’s foul when Spurs faced Everton last Sunday.
Four minutes later, Son made it two for himself as he tapped home a flowing Tottenham move. Kane beautifully weighted a pass into Rose who squared the ball across to an unmarked Son to smash home.
On 77 minutes, Red Star went down to 10 men as they lost Pavkov to injury and it didn’t take long for Spurs to capitalise on this and rub salt further in the wounds. Tottenham substitutes Ryan Sessegnon and Christian Eriksen combined as the former trickled a shot through to score goal number four of the night. The Dane’s goal certainly silenced his haters having been booed onto the pitch when coming on.
A miserable night for the Serbs concluded with the loss of Richmond Boakye, again to injury, while Spurs basked in the glory of a memorable victory in Belgrade. The victory for Spurs leaves them in a comfortable position to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League, having accumulated 7 points out of 12. Spurs also have scored 13 goals in the competition with nine goals coming against Red Star Belgrade (5-0 home win, 0-4 away win).
After the game, Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino was happy when talking about his sides performance: "I am very pleased. It is a very difficult place, it was a very good victory, it was fully deserved in the way that we approached it. It was fantastic, we have to keep going it is only a very, very small step. But it is a step forward.”
"It was a problem for everyone, not only for Sonny, for everyone on the pitch. We feel very sorry about what happened to Andre, but he moved on quickly. We helped him to move on."
Red Star Belgrade head coach Vladan Milojevic also spoke after the game: "We tried to play a different game than the one in London. What we wanted is to decrease the space for their players. We wanted to take the game on a different course. We had a chance at 0-0 and after that we were punished and there is a bitter taste because there is a lot of injuries."
What’s next?
Tottenham hope to win back to back games as they return to Premier League action against Sheffield United on Saturday at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
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