SON RISE THAT’S FOR YOU ANDRE...
Heung-Min ends his nightmare week with vital double
HEUNG-MIN SON ended an emotional roller-coaster of a week with a gesture of goodwill for Andre Gomes. The Tottenham star, offered counselling for his role in the Everton midfielder’s horror injury on Sunday, scored twice against Red Star in the Champions League. And instead of celebrating, he raised his hands in a praying motion to send a message to Gomes as he recovers back home. Son’s
HEUNG-MIN SON sent a message to Andre Gomes after conquering his emotions to help Tottenham to the verge of the knockout stage.
Son was distraught after his ill-judged tackle put Everton midfielder Gomes in hospital with a horror injury in Sunday’s 1-1 draw at Goodison Park.
He was offered counselling by Tottenham and was a major doubt to play in this game – but ended up starting against
Red Star Belgrade and scoring twice in four minutes.
Son, whose red card for the Gomes tackle has since been rescinded, did not celebrate either goal. Instead he raised his hands and made a praying gesture after his first in what looked a message of goodwill to Gomes.
It was no real surprise to see Son back in the starting lineup. He was clearly devastated by events on Merseyside.
But after travelling all the way to Serbia, it seemed inevitable he would play, while
Mauricio Pochettino finally gave Giovani Lo Celso (below) his first start for the club – and was rewarded when the midfielder opened the scoring.
Skipper Harry Kane was back from a virus too, and spoke at length in the build-up about how Spurs must quickly turn around their stuttering form.
Pochettino has looked a manager searching for answers for months, and he raised a few eyebrows with this line-up.
Particularly surprising was the decision to start a right-footed Eric Dier, who has spent most of the last few years as a holding midfielder, as the left-side centre-half. Liverpool lost here 2-0 last season and there were danger signs early for Spurs when Milan Pavkov almost broke right through the centre of their four-man defence.
Red Star had only lost two of their previous 21 home matches in European competition and were up for this after being spanked 5-0 in London last month.
But once Spurs weathered the early storm, they started to grow in confidence, with Kane and Son going close.
Bayern Munich winning earlier in the day to clinch their place in the knockout round put pressure on both teams in the fight to join them.
And it took a great save from Paulo Gazzaniga to deny Pavkov from point-blank range after the ball broke kindly to him with the centre of the
Spurs back four carved open. It was a let-off for the visitors, and they punished Red Star when Lo Celso broke and fed Kane, whose touch let him down but he still managed to hit a post with his shot.
Son’s follow-up was cleared off the line, but after a goalmouth scramble in which Son hit the bar, Lo Celso pounced to open his account for Spurs.
Red Star almost equalised when Rajiv van la Parra struck a post and Davinson Sanchez hit his own crossbar with an attempted clearance. The home side wasted another good chance to equalise after Tanguy Ndombele coughed up possession with a wayward pass in a dangerous area.
He made up for his error by charging through soon afterwards to set up Dele Alli, whose weight of pass to Son was perfect and he made it 2-0.
Danny Rose crossed for the South Korean’s second goal of the night just after the hour and substitute Christian Eriksen sealed victory five minutes from time.