SPURS SHINE IN 5-STAR DISPLAY
Spurs find form to batter Belgrade
SON HEUNG-MIN bagged a double as Spurs collected their biggest ever win in the Champions League.
It has been a horrible start to the campaign for Mauricio Pochettino’s men, who had only won three games before this, but they put all their problems behind them in a pulsating display in Group B.
Harry Kane and Son both scored twice while Erik Lamela had a red letter day on his 200th appearance for the club, adding a second-half goal to his two fine assists.
Pochettino, who has admitted his job could be on the line if their slump continues, will hope this can be the start of a resurgence though that will be put to the immediate test in their next game when they visit Liverpool in the Premier League on Sunday.
The Spurs gaffer said: “I don’t feel great, I feel OK. It’s only one game but of course we need to build our confidence and we have to start at some point.”
On rumours of squad unrest, Pochettino said: “In football we try to find a reason from nowhere. The problem was on the pitch and that is all. It’s normal to see problems on the pitch and you try to find a way to spark the team.
“The most important thing is to be together and be calm and know that this type of thing can happen in any team.
“But things happen in football you can’t explain.”
Red Star, who somehow were supported by over 200 fans despite a ban by UEFA, were not up to much but Spurs were simply too hot to handle.
And they produced a result that went some way to righting the wrongs of that 7-2 humiliation at the hands of Bayern Munich last time out.
It also had importance in their ambitions of making it out of the group as they now move into second place.
UEFA will wait for a report from their delegate before deciding whether to investigate how Belgrade fans got into the game as the governing body banned them from attending after being found guilty of
racism in a qualifier in July. But their supporters made it into the ground and congregated in the North Stand, making themselves heard with chanting before being segregated from home fans by stewards. The ban on away fans impacted Spurs’ ability to sell more tickets.
However, it didn’t seem to affect the home side on the pitch who started on the front foot and went ahead in the ninth minute. Kane lost his marker at the near post and glanced Lamela’s inswinging corner past Milan Borjan.
Lamela was the provider again after 16 minutes, cutting back inside down the right and picking out Son at the far post, where the South Korean steered a powerful half-volley high into Borjan’s net.
Borjan then twice prevented Spurs from increasing their advantage midway through the first half, superbly pawing away efforts from Tanguy Ndombele and Lamela. But there was little he could do about Spurs’ third shortly before half-time as Son coolly slotted past the keeper from eight yards. Lamela spurned two glorious chances at the start of the second period before finally finding the back of the net in the 57th minute.
The 27-year-old collected Serge Aurier’s pass inside the area, spun away from his marker and blazed past Borjan.
The Red Star keeper denied a clean-through Lamela soon after, while Son clipped into his side-netting after a surging run through the defence.
Kane got the better of Borjan in the 72nd minute, though, slotting into his left-hand corner from 10 yards to seal a dominant win that suggests Pochettino’s players are still fighting for him.
There was an added boost of deadline-day signing Giovani Lo Celso returning for the first time in seven weeks.
Son said: “We as a team stuck together from the start. We wanted to win. It was an amazing job and amazing performance.
“We have got a long way to go, some big away games coming up for us in the Champions League.
“But we take it step by step, think about Sunday and Liverpool and then think about the Champions League again after that.”