There is nothing in football that can’t be healed by a dominating European competition victory. Tottenham Hotspur went into today’s home match against Copenhagen in the Champions League group stage with the vibes in the toilet after a horrible home loss to Chelsea this past weekend. As poor as that match was, this one was the polar opposite. Spurs got a first half goal from Brennan Johnson and a second from Wilson Odobert, assisted by Randal Kolo Muani to put them up 2-0.
Johnson then was sent off
for a bad sliding challenge that was controversially upgraded to a red card by VAR. It looked as though Spurs might be set for a nervy spell of sufferball to see the game out. Instead, Spurs ran riot after going down to ten men.
Micky van de Ven scored what in a fair world would be a Puskas Award contender, basically recreating Son Heung-Min’s goal against Burnley, but as a central defender. Second half substitute Palhinha then scored again to put Spurs up by four, and there was no doubt who the eventual winners would be. Spurs took their foot off the gas afterwards, but still nearly had a fifth at the death after Dane Scarlett earned a penalty, but substitute Richarlison put the spot kick off the bar and out.
But never mind that. It was the kind of glory, glory night we all remember, and the kind of performance that banishes all the bad feelings that built up over the past few matches. What a performance!
Here are my match reactions from a dominating win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Match Reactions
- Final xG: Tottenham 3.31 – 0.33 Copenhagen. Lol…lmao.
- Copenhagen’s Croatian keeper Domanik Kotarski (hereby referred to as Keeper McMustache) had a horror-show of a match (but some assertive whiskers). He made mistakes on each of Spurs’ opening two goals and then let in two more with his team down a man. I almost felt sorry for him. You could see his soul leaving his body when Palhinha’s goal crossed the line.
- I could’ve sworn I heard boos coming from the crowd as the lineups were being read on the tannoy; I was all set to be extremely bad at Spurs fans at the stadium until I was reliably informed the boos were all from the away Copenhagen supporters. Sorry, Spurs fans! The support was fantastic!
- Copenhagen made the weird decision to not press Spurs at all. Like, ever. It meant Spurs had a lot more time on the ball and it showed in some of their attacking moves. I would like to propose that more teams just not press Tottenham Hotspur, it was fun.
- Destiny Udogie works really well on the left side of the pitch and particularly well with Wilson Odobert. I noticed they were trading which player goes forward on the overlap early on, and it was causing some confusion in the Copenhagen back line. And Wilson did quite well going forward and was in the right spot at the right time to score Spurs’ second.
- That Brennan Johnson goal was a real goal! A fantastic long pass from Xavi to set everything up, and while BJ was helped by an atrocious rush-out from Keeper McMustache, it was an incredible needle to thread to put that past the post and not just square it for Odobert. (Yes, we’re going with that interpretation and not that he was TRYING to pass to Odobert and just mishit it into the net, shhhhhhhhh)
- Kolo Muani probably should’ve had a hat trick. I have no idea how he didn’t, and a few of his chances were really poor misses. That said, his assist for Odobert ruled, and even though he was missing chances it meant he was actually getting chances! So that’s good.
- Johnson was late on the sliding tackle and it’s definitely a foul and a card, but to my eye that was a pretty soft red only given because VAR slowed it down. He made contact with the studs, but not with any force behind it. I don’t like that call, and not just because it happened to my team.
- It is my opinion that some goals in soccer should be given as two goals if they are exceptionally dope. Seriously, Son Heung-Min won the Puskas award for doing exactly what Micky did vs. Copenhagen. And Sonny was a forward! Micky’s a central defender! The world isn’t ready for the future Van de Ven – Vuskovic central defense pairing.
- Richy had two late headers from Pedro Porro crosses that just didn’t come off and missed a penalty off the bar. I swear someone put a hex on that guy. Nobody is that unlucky.
- With that win, Spurs are now in seventh place in the table, and if the group stage ended now they’d get a bye in the second round. Their next Champions League match is away to PSG, so y’know, gulp. That said, last season 11 points was good enough to clinch progression out of the group stage, and so far Spurs have eight points with four games to play. Gotta feel good about that.
