Tottenham Hotspur Women traveled to Selhurst Park today on a sunny London afternoon to face a Crystal Palace team that had an impressive start to life in the WSL after promotion this past season. An early red card set the tone, but it took Spurs a while to get off the mark against a solid Palace defense. But once they did, they didn’t look back. Palace defended heroically in the first half and kept Spurs scoreless after the opening 45, but Spurs put seven goals in the back of the net in the second
half to run riot over their London rivals, winning 0-7. Olivia Holdt had a hat trick, and new signing Victoria Pelova added a brace to lead Spurs in an utter rout.
Martin Ho made two changes to the team that ran out to a 1-1 draw at Liverpool last weekend — last year’s midfield star Olivia Holdt and new signing Victoria Pelova came in for Eveliina Summanen and Amanda Vinberg. Former Spurs stalwarts Bethany England and Molly Bartrip, who Spurs allowed to leave this summer, both started for a Palace team that were coming off a scoreless draw away at Arsenal last week.
Spurs were gifted an enormous advantage early on after Palace midfielder Fuka Tsunoda was sent off with a straight red card for a two-footed late challenge on Cathinka Tandberg, giving Spurs a player advantage. It took a while for Tottenham to capitalize — despite piling on the pressure and getting in Palace’s box again and again they weren’t able to score, with Tandberg putting a looping header off the crossbar and Julie Blakstad hitting side netting. Palace keeper Pauline Peyraud-Magnin made some magnificent saves to keep Spurs out in the first half.
Spurs’ one-way traffic continued in the second half as they tried to find a way through a bunkered Palace defense defending for their lives. It took a while, but Spurs finally got off the mark four minutes into the second half. Victoria Pelova found some space on the back line and put a lovely chipped ball into the box for Oliva Holdt, who eased the ball past Peyraud-Magnin to put Spurs up a goal.
After that, the floodgates opened and Palace couldn’t keep Spurs from scoring. Holdt added a third goal midway through the second half to complete her hat trick, and Spurs got further goals from Victoria Pelova, Shekeira Martinez, and Amanda Nilden to roll to a complete rout at Selhurst.
The final score was 0-7 to Tottenham.
Match Reactions
- It will never not be jarring to see both Beth England and Molly Bartrip starting for Palace. Both Spurs legends, and I’d expect they’ll both eventually be in the Tottenham Hall of Fame.
- Spurs got a HUGE break early when Fuka Tsunoda was given a red card for a heavy tackle on Tandberg. Honestly I didn’t think that was a red, and I’m surprised it was given, but that gave Spurs a massive advantage.
- Palace are a very good defensive team, as you’d expect with Bartrip back there, and they defended heroically down a player. Spurs got plenty of touches in the box but despite 19 shots in the first half only one was on target.
- Wonderful opening goal for Spurs — Pelova got a little space and just chipped a nice ball across the face of goal to Holdt who was at the right place at the right time. Can’t say Spurs didn’t deserve it.
- Holdt really adding to her reputation as the Best Player in Women’s Football™ with an absolute banger to put Spurs up 2-0. It’s weird she hasn’t started until now, unless she had some injury niggle or something.
- Well, when the floodgates opened they REALLY opened. Holdt’s hat trick was fully earned, and Pelova added a banger to make this an away rout. Fun to see goals from Martinez, last year’s third leading scorer in the league, and Nilden too. Spurs brought on their max subs and none of them let the pressure drop.
- I’m not sure how much we can really take from this match, as the game state was fully upset seven minutes in by the red card. It did give us a chance to see Spurs really work to break down a committed and bunkered defense, though, something they’re likely going to see a lot of this season, especially by the teams below them in the table.
- This is the kind of scoreline that teams like Arsenal and Chelsea used to put up against Spurs all the time, and although there’s a big caveat, it’s nice to see Spurs put another team to the sword.
- The 7-0 scoreline puts Tottenham up to second in the WSL, ahead of Chelsea on goal differential. Spurs’ next match is Wednesday, home to West Ham in the FA Women’s League Cup Group Stage.
