Dele Alli acrobatics help Tottenham tame Wolfsberger and reach last 16
It was a night when José Mourinho wanted victory, a cohesive performance and a confidence booster for the critical run of Premier League fixtures that comes next. The Tottenham manager got the former, even if there was little doubt he would do so against the minnows that sit fifth in the Austrian Bundesliga.
As for the rest, it was not Spurs at their slickest and most energetic, although it is difficult to put bodies on the line when a Europa League tie is effectively over after a 4-1 first-leg away win. But there was the tonic of genuine cutting edge from Dele Alli and the latest evidence that Gareth Bale can feel a return of the old rhythms.
Alli added a magnificent overhead kick to his back catalogue of classic goals while he contributed two assists; the first for Carlos Vinicius and the second for Bale, who had come on as a 69th-minute substitute. Bale swept on to Alli’s pass and bent a first-time leftfooter into the far, top corner.
Mourinho introduced three youngsters and one of them, the striker Dane Scarlett, won the ball high up for Vinicius to add his second to seal a cakewalk into the last 16. There were debuts for Marcel Lavinier at right-back and Nile John in midfield.
Mourinho said that Scarlett, who became the first 16-year-old to produce a Europa League assist since Kylian Mbappé, was an “immense talent” and would be a first-team squad member next season but it is Alli who stands to provide the more immediate uplift. Spurs face a run of three league games in eight days, against Burnley, Fulham and Crystal Palace. Having taken 11 points from their previous 12 top-flight fixtures, they must stop the rot.
“I’m not going to talk about Dele’s goal – everybody saw it – but the globality of the performance is what mattered,” Mourinho said. “He had an injury [in January] and, at the same time, talk, talk, talk about staying or leaving. The market closed, the injury went and he started working with motivation. To have Dele back at this level is amazing.”
The defender Eric Dier said: “Everyone has a short memory in football and maybe they have forgotten Dele’s quality. Tonight he has reminded people of that.”
Alli’s showstopper came on 10 minutes and, when he touched Matt Doherty’s cross down into the ground with his studs and watched it bounce high, he looked in consumate control of the situation, his mind making the calculations in a heartbeat. With his back to goal close to the penalty spot, it was a difficult skill to execute; the angle of connection to direct the ball inside the goalkeeper’s right-hand post needed to be perfect. It was.
Spurs made heavy weather of getting through Wolfsberger in the first half, with Vinicius blowing a one-onone in the 44th minute, having fastened on to Erik Lamela’s throughball and danced around the goalkeeper with a lovely move. He could not get the needed precision on the finish and Gustav Henriksson slid back to clear off the line.
To Mourinho’s irritation, there were moments of defensive looseness and he shouted accusingly at his players when Michael Liendl was allowed to touch goalwards from a low cross on 35 minutes. Joe Hart saved easily. The substitute Dejan Joveljic was wasteful with two chances after the interval.
Mourinho wanted greater intensity in the second half but there would be a let-off before things got better. Cheikhou Dieng chased a long ball in on goal and he had the position on Dier, who leaned into him just outside the area, sending him over. It looked like a foul and a possible red card for Dier.
To Wolfsberger’s fury there was no whistle, and moments later Spurs were 2-0 up when Alli dropped a cross over Luka Lochoshvili for Vinicius to head down and in at the far post. It was the prompt for them to ease to victory.
Lamela and Alli went close; Bale and Vinicius did not miss.
Brentford ended their three-game losing run in the Championship with a 3-0 win against struggling Sheffield Wednesday. Goals from Bryan Mbeumo, Saman Ghoddos and Mads Bech Sørensen ensured the Bees stayed second in the table, with the gap to the leaders Norwich back down to seven points.
The Makeshift centre-forward Mbeumo gave the hosts the lead midway through the first half when he turned Sergi Canós’s wayward shot home from close range. Mbeumo turned provider late in the second half, slipping a pass to Ghoddos who angled a first-time shot across the Owls keeper Joe Wildsmith.
The second goal was not without controversy, with Wednesday down to 10 men following Henrik Dalsgaard’s foul on Fisayo Dele-Bashiru. Ghoddos added an assist seven minutes from time with a pinpoint free-kick which Sørensen headed in off the far post.
Thomas Frank, the Brentford head coach, praised his side’s improved defensive display after their first clean sheet for nine games. “The most important thing was that we defended well and took the initiative again,” Frank said. “We did that and you could see the confidence return.”
Watford stay level on points with Brentford after holding on to beat Blackburn 3-2 at Ewood Park – a fourth league victory in a row for Xisco Muñoz’s side, and a fifth defeat on the bounce for Rovers.
João Pedro’s deft lob put the visitors ahead before Ismaïla Sarr tapped in from close range after the Rovers keeper Thomas Kaminski had saved Pedro’s deflected shot. Harvey Elliott pulled one back just before half-time, finding the roof of the net from a narrow angle.
Tony Mowbray’s team emerged for the second half with renewed hope, but the Hornets regained control on the hour through Ken Sema’s pinpoint finish. Watford had chances to make the game safe before Ben Brereton’s late goal ensured a nervy finale.
Swansea edged to a 1-0 home win against Coventry to stay a point behind Brentford and Watford with two games in hand. Ben Cabango helped Steve Cooper’s side to get back to winning ways, the Welsh defender meeting Conor Hourihane’s corner with a towering header in the 54th minute.
Coventry, who beat Brentford 2-0 in their last outing, made life difficult for their opponents and appealed for a first-half penalty when Calum O’Hare went over in the Swansea area. The hosts struggled to play their usual game before Cabango made the breakthrough, and Kyle McFadzean almost grabbed an equaliser from an 87thminute free kick.
Cardiff continued their remarkable resurgence under Mick McCarthy, winning 2-1 at Bournemouth to replace the Cherries in the play-off places. When McCarthy was appointed last month, Cardiff were 15th in the table, 13 points behind Bournemouth.
The Bluebirds captain, Sean Morrison, put Cardiff ahead with a superb header before Kieffer Moore’s penalty doubled the visitors’ advantage before half-time. McCarthy’s side held on for a sixth successive league win despite
Shane Long’s second-half header.
“The lads have been brilliant and have earned their position in the table with wins they have had,” McCarthy said after the game. “They will all be chasing us now … everybody will want to beat us. We won’t want to drop out of the top six.”
Barnsley boosted their play-off hopes and leapfrogged Stoke City with a 2-0 win at Oakwell. Callum Styles’s early 25-yard rocket put the hosts ahead, with Daryl Dike sealing a fourth consecutive league victory for Valérien Ismaël’s side. In Wednesday’s other match, Preston played out a goalless draw with QPR.
There appears to be little love lost between Angeliño and Pep Guardiola. Having made his transfer to RB Leipzig permanent this month, the left-back has spoken of his unhappy return to Manchester City in 2019, claiming he was cast adrift on the basis of two preseason games and blaming Guardiola for not having the courage to put him in the starting XI.
“He killed me,” said Angeliño, one of the Bundesliga’s most exciting players with eight goals and 11 assists, and a key part of Julian Nagelsmann’s team. “The confidence, for me, is everything. And when you don’t have the trust of the coach, it’s everything. I was judged on two games in pre-season, and then I didn’t get my chance for a few months.
It’s hard to play one game every two months.”
The Spaniard came through the City academy as a teenager and, after impressing at PSV Eindhoven in the 2018-19 season, the English champions exercised their option to buy him back with a view to solving their longstanding problems at left-back. Instead, despite being described as a “fantastic” trainer by Guardiola, he made only four starts in the league before being loaned to Leipzig in January last year.
“It was a 50-50 experience,” Angeliño says of his time in Manchester. “On one side I really learned a lot from Pep, he improved me as a player on the pitch, and I have to be thankful for this period. On the other side, I didn’t play as much as I wanted to or deserved. I like to play football, I want to be on the pitch every time, and RB made it possible. Since the first day, they gave me the trust.”
Such was Angeliño’s enthusiasm for Leipzig and Nagelsmann that returning to City at the end of his loan period was never a realistic option. Cash-flow issues prevented Leipzig from making the deal permanent last summer, but it was finally completed two weeks ago for about £16m.
“I got a massive chance to come to RB, and my career went up again,” Angeliño said. “That’s why I decided to come back. When someone believes that much in you and keeps playing you week in week out, you have to pay it
back. I’m very happy that I can keep working with him [Nagelsmann] for a longer time.”
Asked to compare Nagelsmann and
Guardiola he said: “They both like to play with the ball, get the ball quick. There is one thing that is a big difference. One gave me the confidence and played me, the other didn’t. I’m just thankful to Julian for the trust. Sometimes
you need the courage to put a player in, and he did from the first game.”
Angeliño has been Leipzig’s most active outfield player this season, starting 31 games in all competitions, including the 2-0 defeat by Liverpool in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie last week. But he shrugged off any concerns over whether his volume of football in Leipzig’s high-energy system put him at risk of fatigue.
“I had a rest when I was with Pep for six months. That was enough. I don’t want it again. I don’t like being out, and I’m thankful that I get to play most of the time. I’ve had enough holidays.”