| Match report
A dominating performance
against Crvena zvezda (or Red Star Belgrade as we know them) saw
Heung-Min Son banish the demons of Sunday's incident with Andre
Gomes and Giovani Lo Celso pulled the strings to earn Spurs a 4-0
win against a side who doesn't generally lose at home and not by
that margin.
Five changes to the side by
Pochettino saw spurs move to a back three and as they came out to a
tifosi at the Red Star end, the atmosphere started to build, with
the noisy home fans chanting way before kick off. With Dier and Lo
Celso starting, there was an element of steel and silk added to the
team. However, Red Star started quickly and they were going at the
Spurs defence from the kick off, although Marin picked up an early
knock in a challenge with Sissoko. But Spurs started to build
possession and there was a short VAR stoppage as the ball popped up
from Tanguy Ndombele onto an opponent’s thigh and not hand. Juan
Foyth, in at right back, was making runs up the wing, but he also
had to be sharp in defence, as the home team tried to attack his
flank. The Belgrade side were all about passion and pace, while
Spurs were about precision and patience in the early stages.
Red Star were closing quickly, but Spurs were comfortable on the
ball, awaiting the opportunity. Sissoko threaded a straight
pass through to Ndombele, who found Kane ahead of him. Taking a
touch round the man in front of him to the right, Harry struck the
ball well, but only into the side netting. Rose lifted the ball over
the defence to an offside Son, Foyth took on his opposite full back
after being put in by Sissoko, but over-ran the ball and then some
good passing in the last third ended with Dele trying to spin the
ball over the last man to Ndombele, but over-hitting it. Another
good move started by Moussa, played the ball through Lo Celso to Son
on the left, who took one touch and swung the shot across the
keeper, but wide. The game then moved to the Spurs end, with Pankov
running through the middle, getting the bounce off Foyth to leave
him free in front of goal. The centre forward struck the ball well
enough to Gazzaniga’s left, but with Paulo going right, he stuck out
a foot to keep the ball out. It was an instinctive stop and a vital
one with the first half halfway through.
A free-kick and a corner for Spurs brought no threat and neither did
Sissoko’s follow-up drive that cleared the running track behind the
goal. Ndombele almost slid Son through as Tottenham displayed
a calm confidence on the ball. Ironically, Eric Dier had shown good
strength to win the ball in the Red Star half, but his first foul
brought a booking as he challenged in the air against Pavkov, when
some brutal fouls by the home team had gone past with just a talking
to.
An amazing move ended with the ball in the net eventually ! Lo Celso
hassled the ball off Jovancic in the centre circle in the Spurs half
to run away with it and fed Kane to his right. It looked as though
Harry had pushed it to close to the keeper but nudged it past him,
only to see the ball come back off the post. It fell behind Kane,
but Son was there to swing it at goal and his effort was cleared off
the line. The ball dropped and Dele looked as though he was bundled
over as he looked to shape an over-head kick, with Ndombele winning
the ball that went to the left side of the goal where Harry volleyed
it across the face of goal. Son looked as though he must score, but
managed to hit the bar from very close range as he fell into the
ball with his hip making contact with it. As the ball bounced down,
Giovani Lo Celso put it into the net from five yards out to hand
Spurs the lead after VAR had tried to make some sense of what had
gone on ! The goal had topped off a composed performance to that
point.
Red Star conceded possession halfway in their own half and Dele was
put away on the left and he tried to replicate his goal against
Everton on Sunday, but ran into a defender. Two minutes before
half-time, a half-clearance was played in to van la Parra, who shot
to Gazzaniga’s left hand post, hitting it and the ball came out so
quickly, Sanchez didn’t have a chance to get out of the way and the
ball looped up onto the bar and this time it bounced away to be
cleared. It was an escape and TV replays showed that Paulo got a
touch on the first shot to deflect it onto the post. It was a little
worrying that as Dier headed out a corner and as play broke down the
referee pointed towards the penalty spot. Luckily, it was for a foul
on Dier and not for a penalty for the home side as Spurs have been
prone to letting goals in just before the break before in the
Champions League this season.
The first half has seen Red
Star play conservatively, with a lot of players getting deep behind
the ball, allowing Spurs to keep the ball and string passes
cross the width of the pitch. The first fifteen minutes of the
second half would be very important. A couple of loose passes didn’t
bode too well and then when Ndombele lost the ball and Pavkov
over-hit his pass to Marin, when they outnumbered the Spurs
defenders with just three minutes gone since the restart. Just
before that Kane had run at defenders in the box and got bumped, but
not enough to earn a penalty. A perceptive cross-field ball by
Ndombele from the right found Son, who passed to Rose and then
the ball went into Dele in the box. He took a touch and had it
nibble doff him, but a bounce off a defender took it back to the
Spurs midfielder, who was denied a shooting chance by a last ditch
toe- poke away from him. A lot of the time when Spurs had the
ball at the back, Red Star dropped off and allowed it to go from
side to side. It brought boos from the home crowd, but so did
misplaced passes by their own players. Much of the heat had been
taken out of the stadium atmosphere.
Sissoko out-muscled a Red Star player on the ball, played it to
Ndombele, who held off two tackles and played the ball to Dele in
the D. He unselfishly slid it left to Son, who drove it high into
the net past the keeper to make it 2-0, which, as we know, is a
dangerous lead for us. It was a good strike to give the goalie no
chance, but the build-up shows how we can play when we revert to our
style of previous seasons.
Red Star almost hit back straight away, when Sissoko gave the ball
away and Pavkov struck a low drive from 25 yards, but Gazzaniga
plunged to his left to keep it out reasonably easily. When
Sanchez won the ball in his own half, with Red Star claiming
handball, there looked little danger for the Serbian team. It came
to Kane, who produced an inch perfect pass inside the full-back for
Rose to play a square pass across the box for Son to run in on the
right to fire it high into the roof of the net from the corner of
the six yard box to give Spurs a good lead.
With only 1500 Spurs fans in
the ground, it was good to hear them making themselves heard
regularly over the home supporters. They perked up when Marin went
down on the edge of the box as Foyth conceded a foul and the Red
Star captain tried to sneak one in at the near post, but Lo Celso
put it out for a corner, which cleared everyone when it was played
in. Eriksen replaced Dele after the third goal and looked a
little bit sharper than on Sunday, producing a good ball in from the
right, wide of the area, for Kane to shoot. It went wide, but
despite it taking a flick off a defender’s leg, only resulted in a
goal-kick. Persistent fouling, mostly on Danny Rose (which seems to
be the same wherever he plays in the world) broke up play but handed
Tottenham a series of free-kicks, which they took quickly to
keep the game moving. Sessegnon came on to rest Son and to play his
first Champions League game. Eriksen got the ball from a poor
clearance and crossed with the outside of his foot from the left to
Lo Celso and his volley lacked conviction and squirted wide with a
quarter of an hour left. Pavkov went for a cross and landed sideways
on his foot. Leading to him having a ride off on a golf cart and Red
Star had used all their subs with ten minutes left.
Eriksen could have put Spurs in again, when they outnumbered the
defenders, but it was a sloppy pass straight to a red and white
shirt. Christian did hit a shot that brought a save from Borjan, but
it lacked the power of his usual shooting. With Red Star dropping
into a 4-4-1 formation after Pavkov’s departure, Spurs were facing a
lot of players deep in their own half, but when Danny Rose played
the ball down the left to Sessegnon, the ex-Fulham man cut the ball
back square to Eriksen in the box and he took three touches and
squeezed his shot away between keeper and the post thanks to a
deflection off a defender. The incisiveness of Ndombele’s passing
was instrumental in sparking Tottenham’s forward moves. From a
standing start, he suddenly forced the ball through to blue shirts
to open up the home defence. Sessegnon slipped when looking to
square another pass to Kane, as the ground had a few weak songs
being sung by the home crowd. Ndombele tried to find Kane to his
right, when Sessegnon had acres of space to his left in the box,
then Ryan picked out Eriksen again in the box, but a poor touch
popped the ball away from him and the chance evaporated.
Substitute Skipp was booked when he dived in on Boayke and no added
time in added time was tacked on for the injury to 14, but it didn’t
really matter and the home team were probably pleased it was all
over.
Spurs had managed the last ten minutes very well and with only ten
men, to face with Pavkov's absence, the game ran down with little
excitement. And that is quite reassuring. With last
minute goals haunting our games for the last 18 months, it was nice
that there was to be no last minute panic and that the three points
were in the bag thanks to some neat movement and passing, finished
off with some fine finishing. The last couple of games have
seen Spurs recovering some of their form, but there is still some
way to go. The opposition today is not anywhere near what we
are going to face in the Premier League and the next step is to take
this sort of play into the next game. With players coming back
to fitness, it leaves Pochettino with a nice problem in selecting
his teams, so one to face Sheffield United will be very different to
the one here in Serbia.
The three points give Spurs a good opportunity to progress to the
knock-out phase of the competition and the next home game against
Olympiacos is one that needs to be won to avoid the need of
travelling to Bayern Munich and needing something. We managed
it at Barcelona last season, but this time around it might be a big
ask.
Wayne Sweeting |
