thankfully.
Spurs’ second excursion in the Europa League saw them register their second victory, 2-1 away to Hungarian side Ferencvaros, that again owed more to the opposition’s inability in front of goal, than Spurs ability.
This was a disjointed performance, which was of absolutely no surprise to anyone who saw the tea sheet before kick-off. Only four of the outfield XI that started in the previous game in the competition, home to Qarabag, made this starting XI. It was a young XI, a very young XI.
It meant that only three from Sunday’s Premier League victory made it, this saw all three part sf the team looking like… well they’d never played with each other before. When handed the home side the upper hand, something they couldn’t benefit from because as with Qarabag in that previous game they were proper pony in front of goal.
No matter how many crosses Spurs allowed them to put in or chances they created, they couldn’t finish ’em off. The only time they had the ball in the back of the net in the first half was chalked off by the slightest of offsides. It was so imperceivable that many thought it was the player who was offside in the middle of the goal, not affecting play that was flagged, it really wasn’t until half-time that the lines were drawn and the VAR decision was cleared up. When they did get it on target Vicario was there with a stunning save.
It wasn’t long after that when Spurs opened the scoring, Mickey Moore getting a start went for a run before playing the ball into the box, there was a bit of pinball between a couple of other youngsters, Lankshear and Bergvall and the Ferencvaros defence, before the ball fell to Sarr, took a touch , made space for a shot and fired it home.
Both sides had more chances, Porro hitting the post, Lankshear with an excellent attempt to open his account. But at the same time the visitors were doing their best not to stop crosses going in and attempts being made on their goal.
Just after the hour was one of the best chances for Spurs to double their lead. It was was when Mickey Moore was charging down the right, it was when he played the perfect ball across the pitch. It stopped being so once you saw who was on the end of the pass. Timo Werner, who went and completely Timo Werner’d the chance. Dragging it past the keeper, far too wide before taking a shot while falling over, that hit the back of the side netting. An abortion of a player, a love child between Sissoko and Bobby Zamora.
Thankfully for once straight after butchering that chance, Werner was hooked. As were Lankshear and Begvall, sadly. On came Kulusevski, Johnson and Maddison. Just over 10 minutes after Davies played the ball through to Kulusevski who flicked it on to Gray – who had started in the middle of defence but had now moved to left-back – Johnson was point to where he wanted the ball as Gray was charging up the pitch, Gray put it where he wanted it and Johnson’s first time shot smacked off the crossbar.
Solanke was brought on for Sarr. Five minutes later, they finally got that second. Moore again at the start of things, now on the left – his usual position, why would you move him to accommodate Werner? – perfect pass through the channel for Solanke, his cross goes to a defender who knocks it out to Maddison, he knocked in the direction of Johnson and Kulusevski, it was the Welshman who took it and while the Swede created a distraction for the defence, he made space and placed the ball in the far corner for his fifth goal in five games.
There was still time to Dyche this – be two up in the dying seconds and lose – and they started with yet another cross allowed in. This time Romero – again – didn’t seem that bother as the striker behind him and in front of Davies, stuck out his leg and halved the deficit.
They did see it out but while they sit happily third in the Europa league, one of only 5 of the 36 teams with two wins out of two, they could quite easily have been placed down with the bottom six teams yet to register a point.
Nice to give the kids a run out and get a win out of it. Lankshear didn’t get much service, Moore looked the part, would he have been better played on the left? Gray looks class, even in positions that are not his position. Begvall will come on with more game time. While all of them will probably be better if they’re the one change in a settled side, and not a team with so many changes.