On this day in 2014: Erik Lamela rabona, Harry Kane in goal
By Tom Vinall
In another version of on this day, this time we go back to 2014, where Spurs beat Asteras in the Europa League, early on in the Mauricio Pochettino era. Spurs would finish second in the group, with eleven points, behind Turkish side Besiktas. The club would eventually be knocked out of the competition by Fiorentina, with Mo Salah sealing the tie.
For that game, Poch opted for a line up of; Lloris; Dier, Fazio, Vertonghen, Davies; Lamela, Capoue, Dembele, Townsend; Kane, Adebayor. Meanwhile, Chadli, Eriksen, and Lennon came off the bench.
Kane would score a hat-trick, whilst Lamela grabbed himself a brace. The Argentines first goal being the famous rabona itself, in an absolutely audacious goal. He proved it was no fluke, scoring another rabona goal in 2021 – though we won’t talk about the rest of that game.
The three goals Kane scored were not the only three goals he would be directly responsible for that night. With three minutes of normal time remaining, Lloris was sent off, and Poch had already used all three subs, meaning back up goalkeeper Michel Vorm, who was on the bench, could not come on.
Therefore, someone had to volunteer to go in goal, and Kane did. From the resulting free-kick, Jeronimo Barrales hit a low free kick with not much power, that Kane seemed like he was going to hold onto, but the ball squirmed under his body and into the back of the net. Considering the game state, you just simply had to laugh at that goal, which you’d expect to see in a football movie.
Another takeaway from this game is deeping that Ben Davies has played with Etienne Capoue and Dominic Solanke during his time in North London. He really has seen absolutely everything during his time at the club, for better or worse. It really is no wonder that Heung Min-Son recently called the 31-year old his best friend in football, with the two now in their tenth season together. Son is the godfather of Davies’ child.
That too, and with Davies playing at left-back, and Son on the left-wing for so many of those games. Per transfermarkt, Davies is Son’s fourth most played with team mate, after Kane, Lloris and Dier, with 253 games played together. This makes Son the captain’s second most played with team mate too, after Kane.
I think we can be pretty confident that both players will feature in each other’s testimonial games, when the times come.