Bergwijn shows fight, quality, as Tottenham beat Leicester 2-3

It looked like another lost opportunity for Tottenham Hotspur, who lacked the quality to finish Leicester City until Steven Bergwijn saved Spurs in the 2-3 win. 

It has been a long couple of weeks for Tottenham Hotspur as Spurs fell out of the Carabao Cup and missed out on the north London derby at the weekend. Thus, falling 2-1 on the road at Leicester City seemed about right. Then Tottenham found a couple of moments of magic from Berwgijn and stole all three points on the road in a big game for Spurs. 

Looked like a night of missed opportunities for Spurs

Harry Kane of course scored his obligatory goal against Leicester City, however, Kane probably should have had a hat-trick. Kane had one shot cleared off the line in the first 10-minutes of play and had several other good scoring chances that he normally puts away, including blasting two over and hitting the crossbar once.

The lack of luck was not Kane’s alone as Pierre Hojbjerg had an open goal effort cleared off the line by a scrambling Leicester defence. As time progressed and Spurs missed their chances predictably, Leicester City would take the lead, and then take it again.

Two goals that will never reach the highlight reel had put Spurs behind, despite more than 20 shots of their own. As the minutes ticked by things seemed bleak and Bergwijn was brought on as Spurs’ final substitute with about 10 minutes to play.

Bergwijn shows fight Tottenham was missing

Bergwijn almost cost his team big-time before he came through in a big, big way for Tottenham. First, Bergwijn went down too easily in the penalty box and while on the ground got an ear-full from Caglar Soyuncu in the process.

The Dutchman did not appreciate whatever Soyuncu had to say and jumped up shoving Soyuncu down. Jon Moss promptly gave Bergwijn a yellow – thankfully not a red – and things continued. However, that push, that shove, that moment of utter madness from Bergwijn – three minutes into five minutes of injury time – changed the plot.

Suddenly Spurs were again fighting and out came the forward pass to a darting Matt Doherty that was missing for much of the night. Doherty controlled the ball with his chest as two defenders came crashing in, this allowed the ball to set up for Bergwijn who was trailing the play.

Stevie blasted the ball past Kasper Schmeichel and just as quickly was in the net pulling the ball out, to restart the match and try and steal the win.

Right after kickoff, Leicester managed to give the ball back to Spurs and it was played up to their main playmaker, Harry Kane. Kane laid a pinpoint precise pass into space in front of Bergwijn who showed off his speed to get to the ball first.

Bergwijn rounded Schmeichel and put the ball into the net for a 3-2 Spurs lead, which became a win after kickoff. It was as improbable an ending as we have seen since Amsterdam and personally felt every bit as good as Spurs move to fifth in the table on 36 points. Now Tottenham needs to build on this result and make that climb to the top four.