Tottenham Hotspur in Europa League this Season an Update

Tottenham in the Group Stage

Tottenham were drawn into Group J, avoiding any kind of Group of Death and placed in what was a winnable group with Ludogorets, LASK, and Royal Antwerp. The first match of the Group Stage was against LASK at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. It was the first start for Carlos Vinicius and the young Brazilian on loan from Benfica did well.

Vinicius had two assists in the 3-0 win, as Spurs cruised after Carlos had put fellow Brazilian Lucas Moura in on goal within the first 20 minutes. Gareth Bale – making his first start back with Spurs – seemed to get his first goal back, but his shot was deflected into the net, making it a Andres Andrade own goal instead. A late third from Son after Vinicius took a Matt Doherty cross and headed it into the South Korean’s path in the box was a thing of beauty for Spurs and they were indeed cruising.

The relatively easy walk through Europe to date ended on Thursday October 29, as Halloween came early for Spurs losing 1-0 to Royal Antwerp in Belgium. Tottenham were simply too passive on the evening, basically putting the ball on a plate for Antwerp to score as Ben Davies gave the ball away in the middle of the defensive half.

Tottenham never fully recovered from that early goal and many of the questions that had started to spring up following draws in League were now showing up here in terms of focus. For Jose Mourinho and Spurs, it may have meant a shortening of his bench for now as the Lilywhites were now second in the group only two matches in.

The third game in the group put Spurs back on top as Tottenham beat Ludogorets 1-3 back in Bulgaria. The Ludogorets match was more of a celebration than a football game, although the clean sheet was not maintained. The game was Harry Kane’s 300th with Tottenham and he marked the evening scoring his 200th career goal for the club.

Spurs were comfortably up two goals at halftime, but Ludogorets halved that lead shortly after the interval on a deflected shot that left the defense frozen and late to respond. Less than 15 minutes later Son was coming on the pitch and less than 20 second after that he was receiving the ball and passing it into the middle to Lo Celso for an easy goal and the final score in the 1-3 victory.

At the same time LASK beat Royal Antwerp, leaving Spurs on top of Group J by goal difference, which means Spurs control their own destiny. Tottenham will restart their Group Stage adventure right after the break, hosting Ludogorets five days after Spurs host Manchester City and three days before travelling to Stamford Bridge.

While it would be easy to overlook this match with such big games sandwiching it, winning the 4th game in the group stage sets Spurs up for success. Regardless of how Saturday goes, when Thursdays come it is about one game at a time. After all, one game at a time is how Tottenham have gotten here.