Tottenham make hard work of beating nine-man Lokomotiv Plovdiv in dreadful Europa League...

[ASFN Admin]

These are strange times indeed at Tottenham Hotspur, a club that is simultaneously scraping through a dreadful Europa League qualifier while finalising a deal for one of the planet’s most recognisable footballers. They can only hope that Gareth Bale was watching the same unreliable feed as their fans on Thursday night, for no player could have seen this performance and thought it looked like fun. Jose Mourinho’s side lacked ideas again, and they were only 19 minutes away from being knocked out of the Europa League before they had even reached the competition proper. It took a double red card for Lokomotiv Plovdiv for Tottenham to make the breakthrough, with Harry Kane and Tanguy Ndombele scoring twice in the final 10 minutes to rescue the occasion. Plovdiv had taken the lead a few moments earlier, casting sudden doubt on whether Tottenham will indeed be playing any European football this campaign. What would that have meant for their finances? What would it have meant for the pursuit of Bale? Mourinho and chairman Daniel Levy will be thankful that, ultimately, those questions will not need to be answered. “When they scored it was a moment for them to dream and a moment for us to fear for our future in the competition,” said Mourinho, whose team were dominant throughout without ever looking especially fluid in attack. They created chances in both halves but, against limited opposition, Tottenham never looked sharp. Only when Plovdiv lost Birsent Karagaren and Dinis Almeida to red cards did the visitors really look like a team capable of sweeping the opposition aside. On a more encouraging note, it will be a source of excitement for Mourinho that Ndombele looked so assured off the bench. Tottenham’s record signing has struggled since joining the club but here he injected energy and enthusiasm into his side’s stuttering attack. For the winner, he started and finished the move. Such an intervention can only help to build his self-belief, and the belief of his manager.

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