SPORT CHILD’S PLAY
Moura’s magical hat-trick sets up Spurs for their crucial week against Man City
WHEN he was done with Huddersfield, Lucas Moura had a little kick-around on the pitch with his infant son, Miguel. It’s just about fair to say the toddler gave him a tougher game than those broken souls heading for the Premier League exit.
Are Huddersfield the worst side to make that walk? Probably not — they are not as bad as the sorry lot who turned out for Derby 11 years ago. But it is a measure of the muckiness of their season that they have encroached into that kind of conversation. The sort of discussion that really does undermine the otherwise reasonable theory that there are no easy games at this level. Because there are.
So long as there are teams like Huddersfield having campaigns as wretched as this one, there will always be days when you just know it is going to be OK.
Mauricio Pochettino knew it even if he said he did not a day earlier. Team-sheets have a habit of containing fuller truths than press conferences and his one here carried seven changes from the side that beat Manchester City in the Champions League the other night. That and a third-choice frontman.
But oh to have a third choice as good as Moura. Oh to know that, in the absence of Harry Kane, you can get away with resting Son Heung-min and still call on a guy with 35 caps for Brazil. That is luxury defined and, for that reason, they will face Manchester City for round two on Wednesday with fresh legs, a choice of confidence-rich attackers and the sense of collective well-being in a squad that comes when you rotate and still dish out a shoeing.
That is what this was — a battering. A humiliation. An easy third win from three for Spurs in their new stadium, no goals conceded.
On that numerical front, some more — Tottenham had 70 per cent possession and 22 shots. Two of those hit the woodwork, three of them were very good goals for Moura and Victor Wanyama got the other.
There should have been a lot more, such was the whitewash, save for a 10-minute period at 2-0 down in the second half when Huddersfield were actually decent. It did not last, though, which probably explains their run of 11 defeats in 12.
At this point, spare a thought for Huddersfield goalkeeper Ben Hamer, who has conceded 21 goals in just seven League matches this season. That is an average of one every half an hour.
But Tottenham will not care. After a collapse of four defeats in five, they now have back-to-back League wins and a European victory over City. Even without Kane in the coming weeks, they have some momentum back as they simultaneously chase a topfour finish and a place in the Champions League semi-final. Those are far taller orders than this game, for which Pochettino picked a second-string side.
He kept only Hugo Lloris, Jan Vertonghen, Moussa Sissoko and Christian Eriksen from Tuesday’s win over City and used Moura, a natural winger, up front with Fernando Llorente.
It was a slightly patchwork XI, partially caused by injuries to Kane, Dele Alli and Harry Winks, who has a minor groin problem, but they paid no price for it.
For a sense of how easy it was, consider the impact of Llorente, who once sprinted fewer than 20 metres in a match for Swansea. He is a man of certain gifts, a World Cup winner no less, but even in his most sprightly years he was never mistaken for a master of great movements.
And yet here the trio of Terence Kongolo, Jon Gorenc Stankovic and Christopher Schindler repeatedly failed to track his runs.
Now, is that a sign of a striker reborn at 34? Or maybe a sign of a team that has lost the will to keep pace? Llorente had a very good game, but Huddersfield were able accomplices for him and all others. By the time of the opener, they had already survived three scares. The move that got through was lovely and quick — Vertonghen played left to Ben Davies, who carried forward and moved possession inside to Llorente. The striker put his back into Stankovic and let the ball roll into the path of Wanyama, who in one touch evaded Kongolo before rounding Hamer with the next and tapping in. Brilliant, fast, effective.
The second, two minutes later, ought to give Huddersfield more cause for reflection. It started with the tame loss of possession to Juan Foyth on the Spurs right and continued with Sissoko on one of those surges that have characterised his season of unexpected quality. He spread play to his right, where Moura gathered and finished across Hamer.
Llorente hit the bar at the start of the second half with a lovely touch-turn-volley shuffle before missing two further chances, while Moura and Davies also had opportunities in the onslaught. Among it all, Eriksen hit a post and Lloris tipped Juninho Bacuna’s free-kick on to the bar — his only save of the match.
If that applied a modicum of pressure to Tottenham, Moura eliminated it with the third — a touch and volley three minutes from time — before he wrapped up his hat-trick with an even nicer finish after chasing Son’s throughball and lashing past Hamer.
For 19 league starts, he has 10 goals. Not bad for the back-up guy to the back-up guy. And not a bad way of lifting the fog after Kane’s injury.