SON SHOOTS FOR THE STARS
Heung-Min scores twice to give Spurs spirits a lift
RED STAR at night, Mauricio Pochettino’s delight.
After all their recent wobbles, it did not need to be a gold star performance to get Tottenham back on something close to track.
A feeble, error-strewn performance from Belgrade’s most famous club was punished in more typical Spurs fashion than has been in evidence recently, with the game effectively handed to the London club on a plate by half-time.
All of which will make the team dinner planned ahead of the trip to Liverpool at the weekend just as easy to digest.
That game on Sunday will be a far sterner test, but all of a sudden Tottenham seem to have got their appetite back and will have renewed stomach for a battle at Anfield.
Their win here was far less convincing than the scoreline suggested, but at least it was a win – after only two of those in the previous 11 games, it was a feeling that seemed to have deserted them.
But after ringing the changes for the second time in as many games, manager Pochettino finally managed to rediscover the Spurs of old.
The effervescence was back – the willingness to chase defenders and force mistakes. It was an old habit that was to pay dividends long before the game was halfway through.
In the opening exchanges, Harry Kane had a chance but tripped over his own feet. Son Heung-Min had a sight of goal, but shot tamely. It was just heating up.
Then in the ninth minute it was all so simple. Erik Lamela swung a corner into the box, Kane left his marker and the ball was quickly nestling into the corner of the net.
It was Lamela who proved the key to unlocking a pedestrian Belgrade defence for a second time just seven minutes later.
A clever ball from Serge Aurier into the inside-right channel invited him past the last defender and his deep cross was met perfectly on the half-volley by Son and sidefooted into the roof of the net.
After that, Tottenham remained in control but somewhat lost their way for a period, giving Red Star hope of some sort of revival.
Those hopes all but died just before half-time, though, when captain Marko Marin trod on the ball on the halfway line,
Tanguy Ndombele burst forward and his perfect pass to Son was slid almost apologetically past the goalkeeper Milan Borjan and into the net for the third.
This had become a free ride for Tottenham to exorcise some of those demons that have bitten deep in recent weeks and remind themselves what they can do. In the 57th minute, Kane’s brilliantly-observed pass to Aurier enabled the full-back to pick out Lamela to add a goal to his assists.
The Argentina international should have added a second two minutes later when fed through by Dele Alli, only for Borjan to make a fine save.
Kane, inevitably, showed Lamela how it was done when he paused and picked his spot past the Belgrade goalkeeper in the 72nd minute.
A few lapses of concentration then enabled Red Star to fire off some hopeful pot-shots, which had Pochettino shaking his head. It is for those reasons that this was not quite that gold star performance. But given the season they are having, even a bit of silver service is long overdue.