Wolfsberger AC (Home) 24.02.2021

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Worn with white shorts

With a healthy lead from the first leg, Jose Mourinho still wanted the side to go and win this game, to instil a winning mentality and get some confidence for the upcoming domestic matches.  What he got was a solid performance, with four very good goals and although Spurs let Wolfsberger in a few times, their lack of quality demonstrated the difference between the two sides, as they didn’t really look like scoring. 

It was an unusual tie being played on a Wednesday at 17.00, but with Champions league football the same night, the kick off had to be early.  What didn’t need to happen was it being played on a Wednesday.  Originally set on this day because Arsenal would also be at home in the second leg, their match against Benfica had to be moved to Athens because of Covid-19 travel restrictions.  Not that it mattered too much, as the pandemic still wasn’t letting fans in, so there was no inconvenience there, whereas, in normal times, it would have meant taking time off work to get there.

It took six minutes for the first shot on goal to arrive, with Wolfsberger’s Wernitznig slicing an effort over the bar after Spurs failed to effectively clear a cross and then Bergwijn ran at the Austrian defence before pulling a shot wide of the goal from 20 yards out. There was little tempo to the game, although Wolfsberger were closing hard to restrict the amount of time.

Dele took a forward pass to him with two men around him, but he managed to slip it through to Lamela. The Argentine midfielder ran from right to left and gave it to Bergwijn, who played it infield to Dele. It went wide to Doherty, who played a low ball into the box. Dele was there and took a touch, which sent the ball bouncing into the air with his back to the goal. He launched himself into an over-head kick that sent the ball flying beyond the keeper Kuttin and into the right hand corner of his net. It was a touch of the old Dele and it was great to see him finish it in the instinctive style that used to be his trademark.

While Tottenham’s moves were breaking down in and around the Wolfsberger area, Scherzer fired a shot across goal after being found nicely by Liendl and then an attempted header from the edge of the box to a through ball was weak and trickled through to Joe Hart. Bergwijn was looking to run at defenders whenever he got the chance and had a shot blocked on the edge of the box. Wernitznig was put free in the area, with a ball over the top from Dieng, but he couldn’t sort his feet out and let the ball run to Winks, who tidied up.

Dele nearly got on the end of a long pass forward into the Wolfsberger half, but he was held off as Kuttin raced out to clear it 30 yards from his goal. They were soon at the other end and Liendl directed a low cross at goal from 18 yards, but it lacked any power and Hart flopped down to save easily. The Austrian side were playing neat passing football, but they were not getting into a position where they would threaten the Tottenham goal that much and their percentage of possession was helped by Spurs giving the ball away too cheaply.

Doherty, who picked up a needless booking, looked unwilling to take a defender on when he got forward, but a one-two with Sissoko freed him on the right, from where he produced a cross that Vinicius won, but could not keep it down. Two minutes before the interval, Lamela slipped a pass through to Vinicius beyond the last man. The Brazilian dragged the ball past the keeper and slid it towards goal with his left foot, but Henriksson got back to clear the ball before it got to the line.  There was still time for Bergwijn to cut in from the left to fire a right-footed effort that Kuttin beat out.

Spurs approached the second half with the starting XI and the first contentious moment came four minutes after the restart. A ball lifted over the Spurs back line sent Dieng through on goal and he went down under challenge from Dier, which they appealed to the referee for a penalty. However, the referee considered that the Senegalese striker had gone down too easily and it had been outside the box anyway. The only question would have been if the “foul” was worthy of a red card. While VAR were checking it, Spurs moved up field and Dele exchanged passes with Davies on the left before crossing to the far post and Vinicius pulled off his man to head low past the keeper at his near post.  You feel that it was the sort of ball that Vini would benefit from, but not one that Spurs appear to play too often.

Spurs were making the most of the spaces available and Lamela brought a good save from the keeper and then took the second ball after a free-kick wasn’t cleared, dribbling away from the dead-ball line to curl a shot that a defender got a touch to with his head to divert it over the bar. Erik had another effort that went way over the bar, but the message to his players from Jose seemed to be go for goal.

Wolfsburg were still looking for a goal, if nothing else and when Liendl picked out a cross for Joveljic to run onto, the header just inside the box was directed wide when he really should have done better with it. Baumgartener went through Vinicius to pick up a yellow card and a ban from their next game and Wernitznig also got booked, but in between Joveljic brought a save from Hart when a dummy to Scherzer’s low pass left him with space to shoot low from the edge of the box. Joe was behind it, as he dived on the ground, but at least it gave him something to do.  A good move down the left involving Davies and Dele saw the midfielder freed in the area and his low shot in from the left side was saved by Kuttin.

Dele was having a good performance and when the ball was worked up the left, it came to him and he played a good pass to his right, perfectly into the path of Gareth Bale, who had just come on, to hit it with his left foot into the opposite top corner, leaving the keeper helpless to try to stop it.

With Matt Doherty getting a strong ticking off from the referee for stopping a free-kick being taken and already on a yellow card, Mourinho brought on Marcel Lavinier for his debut. Unfortunately, his first involvement was to step on the ball and then give a free-kick away, but he got a good head to the ball when it came in to take it away for a corner at the far post. Nile John and Dane Scarlett both came on for the last ten minutes, with John making his debut too.  

Moussa Sissoko tried burst through the defence, but the ball was nicked away from him and then Winks tried a curler from the edge of the box, but it was too high. When Henriksson dwelt on the ball on the edge of his own box, Scarlett raced in to take the ball off him and it ran for Vinicius to strike it first time wide of the keeper’s dive to his right and the score moved to 4-0.

It looked as though Dane would get on the score-sheet himself when Bale played a neat little pass inside the full-back, but it was on the young striker’s  wrong foot and his touch gave a defender the chance to put it out for a corner. The remainder of the game was played out and the main feature was the  Wolfsberger number 2 Guram Giorbelidze trying to prove that he was some sort of hard man by throwing Bale to the floor while waiting for a throw-in to be taken.  it will be something to tell his grandchildren about.

Job done and without too many problems, allowing some of the youngsters to get a taste of first team football.  Onto the part of the Europa League where things start to get more difficult, with stronger teams and no separation from teams from the same country.  A good draw would help, but, with no seeding, that is not guaranteed, so expect the matchday squad to look a little more like the strongest as it is a competition that the club are taking seriously. 

Purcell Cole

Gareth Bale’s goal was the 100th scored by Spurs in the Europa League/UEFA Cup – the first English club to do so.  They did so in 56 matches, third only to Benfica (53 matches) and Sevilla (55 matches).

Ben Davies makes his 50th European appearance for Tottenham.