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.
Nuno kept Spurs going for it
As the game progressed and substitutes started it was clear that Tottenham was playing the match to win. As Lo Celso was subbed it was Heung-Min Son coming onto the pitch. Instead of Spurs getting weaker, the team got stronger and a match that almost felt like it was slipping away went back in favor of Tottenham.
Ndombele had a long-range shot deflected wide by the keeper, Bryan Gil had a sliding effort in the box just saved by Roddy with good reflexes, and Kane had a beautiful header that was just too much at Roddy.
Those were just three of the many chances Tottenham made after being drawn level. Whereas last season, Tottenham tended to take a more conservative approach as games went on, Wednesday, Spurs kept pushing and were the team on the front foot for most of the match.
While it is true Tottenham are more likely to concede playing a more open, attacking style, it is also true that an aggressive, forward-thinking approach is how Spurs play best. It is clear Nuno sees that and he is trying to find an approach and team to match.
That game was far from perfect and conceding two goals is not good, but Spurs did manage to win the shootout and advance. If they can keep up the aggression and runs in the fourth round at Burnley, then Tottenham has a chance to make an extended run in this competition.