CONTE’S MADGIC
Antonio’s reign at Spurs off to a crazy start with five goals & three red cards
EUROPA CONF GROUP G DARREN LEWIS @MirrorDarren
WHAT a difference five days make.
Mutiny in the stands and on the pitch during Saturday’s surrender to Manchester United was replaced by excitement and electricity in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last night.
What a shame then that the Antonio Conte effect lasted for the first half hour. The serial winner took Inter to their first title in 11 seasons, made Juventus nigh-on invincible and led Chelsea to the Premier League title with some stunning football.
But turning Tottenham’s underachieving choirboys into street fighters would rank up there with his finest achievements.
A potential annihilation for Vitesse, the Dutch side that so embarrassed Nuno Espirito Santo’s second string two weeks ago, turned into a desperate dogfight as the visitors became the latest team to expose the true scale of Spurs’ defensive frailties.
It had all started so brightly as Heung-Min Son rammed in the rebound for the first of the Conte era, 14 minutes in, after Lucas Moura’s shot was saved by Vitesse keeper Markus Schubert.
Moura then grabbed one of his own, played in by Harry Kane to beat the offside trap and slide the ball under Schubert. We were still just 22 minutes in.
Kane, seven minutes after that, prodded the ball home from Sergio Reguilon’s low cross from the left to make it three. Vitesse were being hammered.
It had not, however, all been one-way traffic.
Thomas Letsch’s side had threatened in patches long before scoring to make a game of it.
In the 32nd minute, they started scoring. Defender Jacob Rasmussen stole in ahead of Eric Dier to head in from a corner.
Slovak midfielder Matus Bero then calmly slid their second into the bottom corner.
Suddenly that familiar feeling of anxiety descended on the white half of north London.
Spursy, they call it. On the hour, record signing, Cristian Romero, was shown a straight red card for a lunge on sub
Lois Openda.
However, referee Marco Di Bello evened things up when he dismissed Danilho Doekhi for a second bookable offence, holding back Kane.
Vitesse were down to nine when Schubert was dismissed for handling Emerson’s Royal shot outside his box. Spurs hung on, but Conte will be under no illusions as to the job he has here.