Glory, Glory Tottenham Hotspur …
Bale, Pavlyuchenko and van der Vaart all make the scoresheet.
What an opening night in the Champions League it proved to be for Tottenham Hotspur. Facing the Dutch champions, nothing’s easy … apparently. However, Tottenham proved it to be otherwise, maybe with some help courtesy of the referee who awarded not one, not two but THREE penalties but also sent off the influential Rafael van der Vaart for two bookable offences. The first half Tottenham stepped up to the mark and put in a solid performance. Gomes who returned from injury made a good save to prevent FC Twente from taking the lead.
With just 8 minutes remaining of the first half, Crouch won a controversial penalty after hitting the ground with Wisgerhof after attempting to connect with van der Vaart’s ball in from the right and it was van der Vaart himself who stepped up to take it. Unfortunately it wasn’t a repeat of his first penalty which saw him score his first goal for the club against Wolves as Mihaylov managed to get a hand to it and put it wide.
Spurs saw out the first half with a clean sheet and 11 men on the field, where really Huddlestone should be counting himself lucky after his challenge early on in the game.
Half time, Spurs 0 FC Twente 0.
It took van der Vaart just a minute to make up for his penalty miss but putting Spurs 1-0 up with a finely taken goal. Taken down on his chest, he spun and volleyed it into the back of the net.
Just over 5 minutes later Spurs were awarded their second penalty of the game after Bale was taken down by Rosales, up steps Pavlyuchenko. Sending Mihaylov the wrong way, Pavlyuchenko makes it 2-0.
Spurs went to sleep at the back when defending a free kick. Janssen crossed the ball in and the ball fell perfectly for Chadli to place it in the bottom right hand corner to make it 2-1.
It was on the hour mark that van der Vaart saw red for his second yellow of the game which leads to him missing the away tie at Inter Milan in three weeks time.
The third penalty was awarded just minutes after Spurs went down to 10men, another controversial penalty. Pavlyuchenko’s shot at goal hit the arm of Kuiper and although it took the referee a little while to award it, he finally made his mind up. Pavlyuchenko himself took the penalty and made no mistake in what was a dangerous penalty approach to take but still, he made it 3-1.
Bale rounded off the night with the 4th. Making the most of Douglas’ mistake he charged into the box and with a cool attitude, slotted past Mihaylov. 4-1 Spurs, game over.
Keane, Lennon and Jenas all made appearances in the second half replacing Pavlyuchenko, Modric and Crouch.
Full time, Spurs 4 FC Twente 1.
A fine Spurs performance, Bale again outstanding and van der Vaart as influential as he has been since joining Spurs saw us pick up all 3 points and go second in the group.
Gomes; Hutton, King, Bassong, Assou-Ekotto; van der Vaart, Huddlestone, Modric, Bale; Crouch, Pavlyuchenko.
Subs: Cudicini, Corluka, Lennon, Palacios, Kranjcar, Jenas, Keane.
Next up, Inter Milan.
By Kirstie Teversham
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