LASK 3-3 Tottenham Hotspur: 5 talking points as Spurs make the knockout stage | Europa League 2020-21
It wasn’t their best performance, but Tottenham Hotspur did enough to make it through to the knockout stages of the Europa League tonight by drawing 3-3 with LASK.
If Tottenham had expected an easy game in Austria, they were clearly mistaken. LASK knew that only a victory would give them hopes of making the knockouts and came out to take the game to Jose Mourinho’s side, who looked strangely disjointed.
The home team took the lead through Peter Michorl’s curving shot, only for Tottenham to equalize from the penalty spot on the cusp of half-time, with Gareth Bale slotting home.
Son Heung-min then put Tottenham ahead with a cool finish on 56 minutes, but with just over five minutes to go, Johannes Eggestein fired home an equalizer.
Tottenham went ahead again two minutes later, again from the spot, with Dele Alli scoring this time. But a spectacular goal from Mamoudou Karamoko in added time meant the game ended in a draw.
Here are five talking points from Tottenham’s draw with LASK.
#1 Tottenham looked strangely disjointed from the start of the game
Tottenham have been impressive in recent weeks, both in Europe and in the Premier League. But right from the start of tonight’s game, something didn’t feel right.
Jose Mourinho deployed plenty of his first-choice XI – including Son Heung-min, Tanguy Ndombele, and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg. But for some reason, things didn’t click.
All of Tottenham’s players were guilty of misplacing passes and making sloppy, rushed decisions – particularly in the first half. And while things improved somewhat in the second period, this was definitely not a vintage performance from Mourinho’s men.
So what went wrong? It’s hard to say. Perhaps Tottenham simply underestimated LASK, who were comfortably swept aside in North London back in October. However, they should’ve known that the Austrian side had nothing to lose and would go for it tonight.
Tottenham fans will be hoping this disjointed performance will be a one-off and won’t mean anything going into the weekend’s North London derby.
Of course, it could’ve been worse – Leicester City lost 1-0 to Ukrainian side Zorya. But overall, this felt nothing like last week’s fun Europa League game with Ludogorets.
#2 LASK were good value for their draw
Tottenham might’ve looked disjointed tonight, but simply blaming their performance for the 3-3 draw would be unfair to LASK. The Austrian side worked incredibly hard tonight, and overall, they were definitely deserving of at least a draw.
Knowing that they needed a win to give themselves any chance of qualifying for the knockout stages, they came out to attack. And early in the first half, they created a number of chances. Davinson Sanchez made a key block at one point and Joe Hart also making a handful of good saves.
When Peter Michorl put them ahead, it was only what they deserved. And at that stage, it was easy to see a loss coming for Tottenham in the mold of their defeat to Antwerp.
Of course, the Austrian side ended up shooting themselves in the foot twice by giving away needless penalties. Both incidents could’ve been avoided and had they been, LASK would’ve won this game.
The draw means they won’t make it into the knockout stages, but they should be able to walk away with their heads held high tonight.