Takeaways from Tottenham shoot-out win over Wolves in Carabao Cup

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Tanguy Ndombele of Tottenham Hotspur celebrate with Bryan Gil, Harry Kane, Giovani Lo Celso after scoring 1st goal during the Carabao Cup Third Round match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur at Molineux on September 22, 2021 in Wolverhampton, England. (Photo by Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images)

WOLVERHAMPTON, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 22: Tanguy Ndombele of Tottenham Hotspur celebrates with Bryan Gil, Harry Kane, Giovani Lo Celso after scoring 1st goal during the Carabao Cup Third Round match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur at Molineux on September 22, 2021, in Wolverhampton, England. (Photo by Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images) /

Tottenham Hotspur fielded a strong side and was rewarded with another strong first half. However, Spurs again faded in the second half but did enough to finish level and ultimately advance to the Carabao Cup fourth round with a shoot-out win over Wolves.

Spurs start strong and score

Tottenham had an excellent first half against Chelsea at the weekend but failed to capitalize on their performance and went into the half level. Thus coming into this match, scoring some goals, particularly in open play was really important for Tottenham. On Wednesday at Wolverhampton, Spurs were able to leverage some good early play to score multiple goals.

Spurs were attacking from the off, although Harry Kane was flagged for offside on 20 seconds into the match, it was clear that Spurs were going to push forward, fast, early, and often.

The aggressiveness on and off the ball paid off when Spurs scored their first goal. Oliver Skipp won a 50/50 ball against Ruben Neves just inside the attacking half. Skipp then slid the ball in the path of a hard-charging Tanguy Ndombele who had a bit of fortune on his side.

Ndombele could not quite control Skipp’s pass but as Conor Coady went to clear the ball, Ndombele kept running, and snagged the clearance with his legs, and was in the box with the ball. As Wily Boly came over Tanguy cut from his left foot to his right and the defender flew by, giving the Frenchman the space to calmly slot the ball home past John Ruddy.

Tottenham show third-man running

The second goal was similar yet completely different from the first. It was similar in that as the first goal, it was started when Skipp was able to recover the ball for Spurs. Ndombele had played an errant pass and Skipp was able to step in and recover, playing a quick one-touch pass forward to Giovani Lo Celso.

Lo Celso was some 40 yards away with his back to goal, so he made the smart play and hit a first-time pass backward to Dele Alli. As Lo Celso laid the ball back to Dele, Kane saw the opportunity and started running off the ball to split the defenders.

Dele played a perfect pass into Kane between the defenders and Spurs talisman made no mistake. After a perfect first touch and a little second, Kane buried the ball past Roddy and it seemed Spurs were on their way.

The goal really was a beautiful team goal with three one-touch passes leading directly to Kane’s breakaway opportunity. The recognition of the runner and the passer was good and we need to see more of this moving forward.