Tanguy’s the Loko hero as Spurs rally
TANGUY NDOMBELE was the unlikely saviour as Tottenham survived a Europa League scare with two goals in the final ten minutes to beat Lokomotiv Plovdiv 2-1 in the second qualifying round.
Spurs named a strong team in Bulgaria but were facing an embarrassing loss when Georgi Minchev put the hosts ahead in the 71st minute.
But Jose Mourinho’s men saved face with an impressive comeback as a Harry Kane penalty, after an incident which saw two Plovdiv players sent off, and substitute Ndombele’s 85th-minute winner sent them through.
Spurs will now face Macedonian outfit Shkendija in next Thursday’s third qualifying round.
They will hope that Gareth Bale will not have been watching ahead of his proposed return to the club as they laboured against a much weaker team.
Steven Bergwijn rattled the crossbar in the first half but Mourinho’s side then had the rug pulled out from under their feet as they conceded from a setplay. A corner was flicked on to the back post where Minchev ran in to slam past goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.
That spurred the visitors into action and they levelled nine minutes later as Ben Davies’ header was handled on the line by Dinis Costa, who was sent off, with team-mate Birsent Karagaren given a second yellow for protesting.
Kane made no mistake from the spot and five minutes later there was a huge sigh of relief as Ndombele, not always a Mourinho favourite, was on hand to convert Lucas Moura’s pass.