FC Copenhagen (Home) 04.11.2025

From the start there was a crispness about our passing which contrasted with the under-weighted passes of previous matches and there was a more dynamic look about the players.  Destiny starting at left back gave Tottenham a good option down that flank and he won an early corner which Pedro Porro played to the far post, where Pape Matar Sarr was just unable to bring the ball down.  The press was winning the ball high up the pitch and Copenhagen’s loose passing returned it to us when we had lost possession.  with 10 minutes gone a Spurs corner was cleared to Wilson Odobert 30 yards out and he played a delightful ball over the Copenhagen defence for Brennan Johnson, but he was just unable to get any force behind his attempted hook back into the middle.

The ball was coming off the wet turf quickly, making it difficult for the players the ball was aimed at to always get it under control if played in front of them or even directly at them, the pitch was so slick.  When Pereira was booked for a trip on Randal Kolo Muani, it handed Porro the opportunity to strike a free-kick from a central position almost 30 yards out, he hit to sweetly, but it went about two feet over the bar.  Spurs were breaking at pace and a neat flick by Bentancur started a move from the centre circle to the left where Destiny struck a shot straight into the keeper at his near post.

When Periera gave the ball away with a careless pass behind Moukoko, 30 yards from the Tottenham goal, Rodrigo Bentancur read it and played a short ball forward to Xavi Simons, who looked up, saw Johnson running forward beyond the left back, but played onside in the middle.  The Dutchman’s pass down the right was perfectly weighted and Brennan took the ball to the right at keeper Kotarski rashly raced out of his penalty area.  It took him to the side-line of the penalty area and with a defender running back, the Spurs wide man slotted into the net from what was not an easy angle for a right-footer.  Seven touches from the time Copenhagen gave the ball away and Spurs were 1-0 ahead.  Wilson was following it in just in case it needed a finishing touch.

Most of our corners were defended well, but we made chances from the second phase, with Johnson taking on his marker in the 26th minute to cross for Pape, but he planted his header over the bar.  Copenhagen’s first effort on target was a weak bobbling shot from just inside the box from Moukoko that arose from a few poor attempts to get the ball clear from a long throw in the 29th minute, then, nearly ten minutes later, Achouri fired a speculative effort over from 25 yards out.  Five minutes before the break, a neat passing sequence between Simons and Odobert and some good footwork from Xavi resulted in a square pass from 12 yards out to Randal.  The ball was stuck under his feet and with a defender coming across in front of him, he squeezed his shot a foot wide.  The goalkeeper had done well to shut off the gap between him and the post, so it was a more difficult chance than a lot of the crowd thought it was.  Randal had an even better chances seconds before the break when Xavi Simons put an inviting centre into the middle of the area and the centre-forward arrived with a well-timed run, but he put it over the top with his head with only the keeper to beat.  It was something he should at least have got on target and would have been a great time to score.   

At the start of the second half, Wilson skipped away from Suzuki and his low ball in to Brennan at the near post with his flicked effort blocked by Lopez.  Micky van de Ven almost put Spurs in trouble when he was being pressed and stretched to keep in play a ball that he had over-run and Destiny wasn’t expecting it, allowing Dadason to get the ball in space down the right.  However, Romero was covering the danger and cleared the ball off for a throw with a tackle that cleared the 17 year old out too.  Moments later when Achouri thought he had got the ball off Porro in the bottom left hand corner of the box, across charged Cristian to blast the ball against the Copenhagen winger for a goal-kick !  Those two tackles really got the crowd going. 

And it was an important tackle by our captain because from the goal-kick, it was worked short to Pedro, who launched a ball forward that Hatzidiakos didn’t deal with and it was running through to the keeper, who had came out of his box to clear, only Randal closed him down with the ball hitting him and going high up into the air in the penalty area behind the keeper.  Randal chased after it and looked odds on to score, but although he killed the ball stone dead with his first touch left of the goal, defenders had got back goal-side, but he had the presence of mind to lay it back for Odobert to run onto it and slide the ball past the keeper from 12 yards out.  It was good pressure from Kolo Muani and an ice-cold set-up for Wilson to double the lead.  

After the half-time interval, Copenhagen brought on 17 year old beanpole Peter crouch look-a-like Dadason.  To say it was boys against men was literally the case.

Almost immediately from the kick off it looked as though Elyounoussi might have a chance as he received the ball on the edge of the box in a central position, but the former South Coast Big Club and Glasgow Celtic man was quickly robbed of the ball as Udogie raced across to defuse the danger.  Then Moukoko found a little space in the left side of the box and he tried a curling effort that didn’t have enough power on it to cause Vicario too much anxiety, flopping to his left to hold the ball.  Johnson got booked for sliding in on Lopez from behind, but VAR checked the challenge, sent the ref to the monitor and he returned to cancel the yellow and show red.  It looked as though Brennan’s tackle has hit the grass first and then it had bounced up into the Copenhagen man’s Achilles.   That left Spurs to see out the last 33 minutes with ten men.

Randal was now enjoying himself and darted between two opponents into the box, only denied by Kotarski diving at his feet.  Udogie was quick to cover when Copenhagen looked like a ball through the middle of the defence might cause an issue, but when he received the ball after being played around a bit, he was dumped to the turf by Suzuki, who got a yellow card for his foul.  63 minutes had elapsed when Palhinha made a challenge on the edge of his own box to stop Copenhagen moving into the are, with the ball running to Micky van de Ven on the 18 yard line.  The Dutch defender ran between two green shirted players, then two more as he reached the halfway line and they just couldn’t keep up with him and when he was five yards inside the Copenhagen box, he planted a left foot shot between keeper and the near post to make it 3-0 !  Who needs ten men when we have Micky van de Ven !  The goal bore so many similarities to Heung-Min Son’s goal against Burnley at home in 2019, so that means another Spurs winner of the Puskas Award incoming !  It was just what Tottenham needed and at a good time after the sending off.

Frankly, Copenhagen only have their selves to blame, with careless use of the ball and poor defending, so, perhaps, it was no surprise that two minutes later Tottenham made it 4-0.  From the restart, the visitors won a corner that was headed clear.  They got possession on their left wing, but a loose pass by Lopez gifted the ball to Wilson, who ran from 25 yards inside his own half to 25 inside the Copenhagen half before releasing a pass to his left to Cristian Romero.  Exactly what he was doing up there, who knows, but his first touch wasn’t great, so he denied himself the chance of a shot, but against showed good composure to switch the ball square as he ran left for Joao Palhinha to knock the ball past the goalkeeper on the stretch from just outside the six yard box.  It was a fantastic counter-attacking goal and Copenhagen just could not live with the pace shown by the Spurs players, although when it was showed in slow-motion on the big screen it looked as though there was a possibility of offside.  As is usual, VAR looked at it and with the semi-automated offside in use, it didn’t take long to confirm it was a goal, even though Copenhagen had set themselves to take a free-kick ready for the goal to be ruled out.   

Again from the kick-off Spurs got the ball and Odobert played it through to Kolo Muani and only the keeper diving at his feet again prevented Randal getting into a position he might have scored from.  You would have thought we were playing against ten men rather than with ten men, such was the dominance in terms of possession and defensive strength that Tottenham had over their opponents.   

Ten minutes from the end, Robert found a bit of room just outside the box left of centre and hit a low shot that the Spurs keeper gathered without any fuss, then Claesson fired over from right of centre just on the 18 yard line, he wanted a corner, but was out of luck.  And so was substitute Richarlison, who met Porro’s cross with the full meat of his forehead only to see the ball bounce down off the underside of the bar on the wrong side of the goal-line as far as he was concerned and away.  A couple of minutes later Pedro delivered another fine ball in and Richi glanced it wide, with Dane Scarlett, also on as a sub, behind him.

Lerager had already flipped substitute Dane up in the air with a late tackle that should have earned him a booking when Dane took a long pass from Porro down beautifully, bamboozled Suzuki with some determination to hold onto the ball and a nutmeg, when he wriggled into the area and this time Suzuki motored in, unceremoniously tripping him with the referee, who was well positioned, having no doubt in pointing to the spot.  Scarlett grabbed the ball cheekily implying that he would take the penalty (and after all he had earned it), but Danso explained that wasn’t going to happen with Richi taking it off him.  Then Porro held it, but it was clear this was the tactic of taking the pressure off the eventual taker, who was Richarlison.  While never be confident of his technique, looking to force the keeper into making a move with his awkward, stuttering run up, he is usually successful but on this occasion, he beat the keeper, but hit the underside of the bar with his shot that bounced down in front of the line and was cleared.  I had said before he hit his shot that it would probably hit the bar after his earlier header did the same.  He is probably one of the unluckiest forwards Spurs have ever signed.

Whether Spurs would be presented with the ball so often in the Premier League or be afforded that much space is highly unlikely, unless we were playing a South Coast Big Club of last season or West Ham.  So, it is difficult to gauge how this performance can be compared to last week’s although there was a more efficient and energetic feel about the team which caused Copenhagen problems all match.  Some say that the freedom that Rodrigo Bentancur had in the match that made him so effective was due to Palhinha not being alongside him.  However, the only people who know what role he had been given are the coaching team and it was certainly a freer one that saw him closing down all over the pitch, often being the first to shut down the keeper, but he used the ball simply and quickly to keep it moving through the midfield.  Xavi also enjoyed the space that was easy to find in between the Copenhagen lines that gave him the opportunity to pick a pass such as the one that set up Johnson’s goal.  It gave a glimpse of what he is capable of and the same can be said of Kolo Muani’s performance that displayed his pace and showing a good link up with Simons and Odobert.

Nobody had a bad game and there was a chance for Thomas to rest some players towards the end, which is a bit of an indictment of Copenhagen seeing as we had Johnson dismissed.  The win will also boost the confidence of the team and might persuade the crowd to get behind them when they face Mancashter United on Saturday lunchtime.

• Micky van de Ven set a new record for the longest carry resulting in a goal in Champions League history with his sprint of 67.7m.
• Brennan Johnson became the first British player to score and be sent off in the same Champions League match.