| Match report
Spurs eased through this Europa
League play-off, without even having to go through the gears, as
they raced into a 5-0 first leg lead to take back to White Hart Lane
next week, when we can expect to see a range of our younger players
given a starting role against a Dinamo Tbilisi side that looks as
thought they had given up the ghost by the hour mark.
Putting out a strong side,
AVB sent a message that he was taking this competition seriously and
wanted to gain a big enough margin not to have to risk too many
first teamers in the second leg, just before we face Arsenal.
So, Tottenham kicked off first half in stadium that saw England's
2-0 World Cup qualifier win in November 1996, with Teddy Sheringham
and Les Ferdinand scoring the goals. In our traditional
European kit of all white, Spurs faced Tbilisi in all dark blue.
It took seven minutes for Spurs to threaten the Tbilisi goal, when a
defensive slip by a defender in the area as Soldado ran at
goal, produced a loose ball, but it couldn't be collected by Gylfi
Sigurdsson and ball was cleared straight to the other end for
Tbilisi to break, but it was snuffed out by Kyle Naughton, getting a
start in place of Kyle Walker. A minute later, Paulinho fired
a 25 yarder way over the bar.
The home team were nippy on the flanks and when Grigalashvili broke
between two defenders into the right hand corner of box, captain
Younes Kaboul came across and conceded a corner to stop the threat.
From that corner, Dawson's head cleared the cross and Naughton won
the ball with it reaching Townsend halfway inside his own
half. Running directly at the heart of the Dinamo defence and
moving to his left as he reached 20 yards out at the other
end, he shot low to the right to beat the keeper who couldn't react.
An away goal 11 minutes into
the match gave Spurs confidence and the freedom to play.
With some neat one touch football, playing little triangles, Spurs
were comfortable on the ball, but a little to comfortable sometimes,
as when Capoue was robbed of the ball outside his own penalty area
in the 15th minute by Dvali, who then shot wide with only Lloris to
beat, but it had been a foul to gain possession and Spurs had a
free-kick. A couple of minutes later, Soldado fired a low shot
on goal at the near post, after Townsend tried to cross from
right, but two defenders cut it out and then tried to keep it in,
only to gift the ball to the Spaniard. Although only a couple
of yards out, Lloria got down low to beat it out the shot.
Townsend was causing havoc down the right and one run brought
a yellow card for Gvelesiani who fouled Andros as he cut inside to edge of D and
was fouled by the Tbilisi defender. From the free-kick, Gylfi
Sigurdsson bent the ball around the right side of the wall, but
could not get it to come back enough and it hit the outside of the
side-netting.
Tbilisi brought a save out
of Hugo Lloris after 25 minutes, when a low cross in from the left
saw Dvali stoop low ahead of the near post, about eight yards out,
to head across goal. Our keeper had to be on his toes to dive
to his left to push the ball wide of goal. When Spurs broke
forward next, Khurtsilava was booked for bad tackle on Sigurdsson
and it was the Icelander who played a neat one-two with Soldado on
the half hour on the edge of the Dinamo box, but was stopped by two
defenders in front him, with Rose free outside him on left.
Tbilisi got a bit more of
the ball in this period of the game and Lloris had to rush out to
volley ball away from edge of box as diagonal ball came in on 35
minutes, then Dembele was booked for a foul on Merebashvili from
behind in the centre circle, just prior to Grigalashvili lashing a
shot over the bar from outside box. The hosts lost Xisco about
five minutes before the break, with the more muscular, but equally
ineffective, Vuoho coming on. With two minutes remaining in
the first half, Naughton played a nice chip over the left back for
Townsend to run in on the right wing. He got to the line,
checked back, selling full back and allowing him to dink a cross to
the middle of goal for the unmarked Paulinho to head in past the
exposed goalkeeper from five yards out. At 2-0, the game was
almost sealed.
In injury time at the end of
the first half, a free-kick was cleared out to Rose, 40 yards out
and he hit a first time shot low but straight at keeper. No
repeat of the Arsenal goal this time !!
Spurs had controlled play during the first 45 and were only under any pressure when
Tbilisi broke, but that was as a result of Tottenham committing men
forward. They held onto possession well and worked space for chances to be
created, scoring two very good goals and Andros Townsend had given them a
torrid time on the right side.
There were no changes at the break, with the opening to second half
being slightly scrappy. It took ten minutes for the first
chance and it came from a Spurs corner. Tbilisi broke with Gregalashvili
crossing low from the right and Naughton cutting it out before it
got to Dinamo player at the far post. Dvali then turned on a
shot to hit the target, but it was low and straight at Lloris.
In the 58th minute, Townsend
was again the maker of a goal and this did wrap the game up.
Townsend raced away from his marker and got to the dead ball line,
from where he pulled the ball back low from the right for Soldado to
finish low at the near post on the corner of the six yard box to
make it 3-0. It was all becoming a bit too easy.
Danny Rose picked up a
yellow card for a foul on Khurtsilava, which was rich as at this
stage the home players starting grappling Tottenham's as they went
past them. Chadli came on for Sigurdsson, as Spurs started to
rest players for Sunday's match with Swansea City and on the other
flank Townsend was till tearing it up, this time dinking a cross for
Paulinho to try an outrageous overhead kick that was way off target.
Rose was the outlet for Chadli's left wing run, pulling the ball
back to the full back 20 yards out on left of D, hitting a
first time shot across keeper to pick out the top right hand corner
of the net for Tottenham's fourth goal. That was in the 64th
minute and then three minutes later, it was five, when Chadli got
away on the left and put in low cross in corridor of uncertainty and
Soldado volleyed in from the edge of the six yard box in the middle
of the goal.
Tbilisi tried to make a fight of it, with Merebashvili cutting onto
his left foot centrally placed, but his low shot was straight at
Lloris. Paulinho and Soldado were withdrawn, giving Kane and
Carroll the chance to stretch their legs, both of whom will now
probably start on the second leg. Chadli was doing well on the
left wing, with his strong build making him look like Martin Chivers
playing on the wing !!
Tottenham's most worrying
moment came with 15 minutes left, as Khurtsilava crossed low to the
near post for Dvali, who hit a low shot that Lloris kept out with
legs before Dawson cleared. Another chance for Tbilisi came
courtesy of Kaboul and Dawson getting in a mix-up, with the former
kicking the ball against the latter in the middle of our penalty
area, leaving Dvali with a clear shot that he pt across Lloris, but
the French international dived to his right to push the ball wide.
Then out of nowhere, there was a kid running onto the pitch. I
hope that he was signed up by the home team, as he showed more
movement off the ball than a lot of their players. I am sure
UEFA will look into this and they should also look at the use of
laser pens, as Chadli had one shone on him as he went to take a
throw-in. Things could have got even worse for Dinamo, as the
Belgian winger stood up a great cross from the left for Kane on the
other side of the box. The striker headed the ball back the
way it had come and left the goalkeeper stranded, but he was saved
by the post, with the ball rebounding out to safety.
The last chance of the match
came with four minutes of normal time left, as Grigalashvili crossed low from
the right and Vuoho shot wide from about 10 yards out.
The remainder of the time was spent with Spurs keeping the ball and
Kane nearly getting away but he was stopped by a good tackle and
then it was all over.
Spurs had rendered the
second leg almost meaningless with this comprehensive victory.
In doing so, they have the chance to leave players out for other
games and give the youngsters a go, as well as showing the world
that even without Bale, they can put in a professional showing to
see off the opposition. Dinamo weren't the greatest team, but
you can only beat what is put in front of you and we have struggled
against teams of this type in Europe before, so to win this
convincingly is satisfying.
The group stage looks a
reality unless something happens to Tbilisi in the next week, so it
means more games, more travelling and with a little bit of luck ...
more goals !!
Mick Stevenson |
