VITESSE ARNHEM  1  (0)  TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR  0  (0) 
Date : –  21st October 2021 Kick off : –  17.45
Competition : –  Europa Conference Venue : –  GelreDome
Crowd : –  23,931
Referee : –  Harm Osmers (GER) Linesmen : – Marco Achmuller; Robert Kempter (GER)
Fourth official : – Robert Schroder (GER)
Weather : –  Mild, dry
Vitesse kicked off the first half
Playing time : –   90 + 7 minutes

 

VITESSE ARNHEM TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
GOAL-SCORERS
    Wittek  77m 22s   None
CARDS
  Bero  (foul on Scarlett)  12   Bergwijn (kicking ball away)  41
  Wittek  (foul on Markanday)  81   Sanchez  (foul on Openda)  72
  Buitink  (kicking ball away)  89   Scarlett  (foul on Schubert)  74
      Winks  (foul on Openda)  80
 

 

VITESSE ARNHEM TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
1.   Markus SCHUBERT 22.   Pierluigi GOLLINI
     
3.   DANILHO (c) 25.   Japhet TANGANGA
10.   Riechedly BAZOER 6.   Davinson SANCHEZ   
6.   Jacob RASMUSSEN 14.   Joe RODON
33.   Ben DAVIES  (c)
2.   Eli DASA    
21.   Matus BERO    8.   Harry WINKS   
8.   Sondre TRONSTAD 18.   Giovani LO CELSO
32.   Maximilian WITTEK       (  18.   Tomas HAJEK  87)    
11.   BRYAN Gil
11.   Nikolai BADEN Frederiksen  (  29.   Thomas BUITINK  85   ) 20.   DELE Alli
9.   Oussama DARFALOU 23.   Steven BERGWIJN   
7.   Lois OPENDA  (  16.   Alois Dominik OROZ  90+1)    
44.   Dane SCARLETT     (  54.   Dilan MARKANDAY  75)
Substitutes Substitutes
24.   Jeroen HOUWEN 40.   Brandon AUSTIN
48.   Nigel van HAVEREN 46.   Malachi FAGAN-WALCOTT
20.   Yann GBOHO 50.   Kallum CESAY
22.   Toni DOMGJONI 42.   Harvey WHITE
27.   Romaric YAPI 43.   Nile JOHN
36.   Patrick VROEGH 47.   Jack CLARKE
39.   Enzo CORNELISSE 53.   Brooklyn LYONS-FOSTER
40.   Daan HUISMAN 51.   Matthew CRAIG
19.   Julian von MOOS 52.   Michael CRAIG

 

Manager : –  Thomas Letsch Manager : –  Nuno Espirito Santo
Kit Supplier : –  Nike Kit Supplier : –  Nike
Shirt Sponsor : –  Etoro Shirt Sponsor : –  AIA
Shirt Sleeve Sponsor : –  Burgers’ Zoo Shirt Sleeve Sponsor : –  cinch
Colours : –
Colours : –
Images of kits courtesy of the marvellous Colours of Football website

 

MATCH REPORT
When Nuno Espirito Santo changed all eleven players from Sunday’s win at Newcastle, it had disaster written all over it.  Understandable in that there are more big games to come over the next week and a half, but the lack of understanding or willing among the players who were selected produced an apathetic performance that ended in a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Vitesse.  It showed the deficiencies in the second string and the senior players who turned out mostly put in performances well below what they should be capable of.

Vitesse pushed hard on the Spurs defence from the start and made it difficult to play out from the back, which Spurs weren’t doing very well anyway.  It looked a bit dodgy when Bryan stretched to tackle Wittek inside the Spurs area and he went down like a ton of bricks, but nothing was given and as Scarlett brought the ball out he was hacked down by Bero, earning the rugged defender a well deserved early yellow card.

20 minutes in and Rasmussen won a corner at the near post, flicking the ball across the face of goal and wide of the far post and the central defender won the ball in the air a couple of minutes later, heading out a Spurs free-kick.  From the corner, the ball was whipped into the near post when the goalkeeper let the ball hit him and was lucky that it came off Sanchez for a goal kick.

The home side obviously wanted to make a name for themselves and were quicker to the ball, making the most of Tottenham’s tentative passing.  It was all a bit stop start, which didn’t help Spurs get their game going.  Not being able to hold the ball up front apart from a spell halfway through the half was allowing it to continually being turned over and the lack of instant control stopped some moves in their tracks.

We did find Dane Scarlett in a bit of space on the right side of goal and he made a  good turn, but had two men on him to see him away from goal.  A neat move between Ben Davies, Steven Bergwijn and Gio Lo Celso opened Vitesse up on their left, which ended with a ball ricocheting across the box after Bergwijn had let fly.

A minute after the break, Lo Celso squared a ball to his right for Bryan to strike first time and the ball went over the keeper but crashed down and out off the crossbar and WInks’ follow-up was easily saved by the keeper.  Scarlett then twisted and turned in the Vitesse box before Bazder pushed him over with a good handful of his shirt, but it went unpunished.

With ten minutes of the second half gone, Lo Celso nicked the ball away and played Bergwijn through.  He reached the left corner of the box, but then tried to lay it off but nobody was there.  The middle of the pitch was too congested and possession was changing hands so quickly that it was all very helter-skelter.  At least Spurs looked more determined to win the ball and when they did so, they just needed to do something with it.

When the ball fell to Dasa on the right as he moved towards the area, he fired in a shot that went a yard wide, although Spurs had been exposed.  Too often when we had the ball it was played to a player who had little space or they failed to make use of it.  Scarlett had little service to make anything of and he was getting frustrated getting buffetted about up front by the more experienced defenders.

Dasa had another effort from distance which Gollini dived low to his right to get behind.  They were winning free-kicks by a series of over-reactions to tackles, which the German referee fell for.  The play-acting was embarrassing but the decisions given were even more so.  The exaggerated dive by the goalkeeper when Scarlett didn’t touch him mugged the referee off and he waved the yellow card at Dane, who was then replaced by Dilan Markanday.  From that, the ball was played forward and a ball in from the right was pushed back to the edge of the area from where Wittek struck a low volley that flew past Gollini’s left hand after taking a flick off Sanchez’s heel.

Bazder then took Winks down late and viciously, then tried to pull the Spurs midfielder up which saw the Vitesse defender put his head into Harry.  It was a much worse tackle than the one Winks was booked for and the referee let it go with just a talking to.

With a lack of intelligent movement up front, there was little to build on and as time ticked won the yellow met the green all the more.  He did book Buitnik at the end for kicking the ball away, so he was on top of all the tough decisions.  However, in injury time when Dasa did it, there was no booking !  Inconsistency … you bet !

So, a disappointing night that leaves us probably needing to win the matches that remain to take the place at the top of the group and I imagine that there will be an insistence that a better side be fielded in each of those games.  It’s not only us, as Mourinho’s Roma lost 1-6 to Norway’s Bodo/Glimt after playing a reserve side and coming unstuck, but we need to worry about our situation and make sure we don’t get stuck with an extra  round if we finish second in the group.

Ted Maul

 

MATCH NOTES
Dilan Markanday makes his Spurs debut.

 

OTHER RESULTS
GROUP A
HJK Helsinki (FIN) 0 Maccabi Tel-Aviv  (ISR) 5
Alashkert  (ARM) 0 LASK  (AUS) 3
GROUP B
Anorthosis Famagusta  (CYP) 2 Flora Tallin  (EST) 2
Partizan Belgrade  (SER) 0 KAA Gent  (BEL) 1
GROUP C
Bodo/Glimt  (NOR) 6 AS Roma  (ITA) 1
CSKA Sofia  (BUL) 0 Zorya Luhansk  (UKR) 1
GROUP D
FK Jablonec  (CZE) 2 Randers FC  (DEN) 2
CFR Cluj  (ROM) 0 AZ Alkmaar  (HOL) 1
GROUP E
Maccabi Haifa  (ISR) 1 Slavia Prague  (CZE) 0
Feyenoord  (HOL) 3 1. FC Union Berlin  (GER) 1
GROUP F
Slovan Bratislava  (SVK) 2 Lincoln Red Imps  (GIB) 0
FC Copenhagen  (DEN) 1 PAOK Salonika  (GRE) 2
GROUP G
NS Mura  (SVN) 1 Stade Rennais (FRA) 2
GROUP H
Qarabag  (AZE) 2 Kairat Almaty  (KAZ) 1
FC Basel  (SWI) 3 Omonia Nicosia FC  (CYP) 1

 

Europa Conference League – Group G

Played Won Drawn Lost For Against Points Goal difference
1 Rennes 3 2 1 0 6 4 7 +2
2 Vitesse Arnhem 3 2 0 1 4 2 6 +2
3 Tottenham Hotspur 3 1 1 0 7 4 4 +3
4 NS Mura 3 0 0 3 2 9 0 -7