“Made in Tottenham”: Ange Finds Relief in Rising Stars’ European Win

Tension eases as Spurs advance in Europa | 01:57

Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham earned themselves some much needed a respite with a 3-0 win at home against Swedish side IF Elfsborg enough to finish in the top eight of the Europa League.

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It was a night to remember for the youth in Tottenham’s squad with three academy players scoring the three second half goals, all of which were their first for the club.

Dane Scarlett broke the deadlock in the 70th minute as he got on the end of a lovely ball from Dejan Kulusevski to head it home, only a week after the 20-year-old was recalled from his loan spell at Championship club Oxford United.

Debutant Damola Ajayi then endeared himself to the Tottenham faithful with the 18-year-old scoring the second goal with a lovely low finish after a one-two on the edge of the box in the 84th minute.

Fellow teenager Mikey Moore put the exclamation mark on the night with the winger dribbling at the Elfsborg defenders before firing into the bottom corner in added time for what was arguably the best goal of the three.

“Yeah made in Tottenham tonight,” Postecoglou told TNT Sports post-game.

“Super pleased for the young boys. We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact we had another couple of 18-year-olds out there as well.

“It’s great. It’s great for the club. I’m sure those boys won’t sleep tonight.

“We needed that. We needed some energy. We kind of designed the game to protect some of our players – we’ve got a big week coming up – and we were going to need the young boys today and they stood up.”

The performance allowed Postecoglou to breath a huge sigh of relief as his side finished fourth in the league phase with five wins, two draws and a loss.

Spurs finished one place behind English rivals Manchester United, who 2-0 away in Romania against FCSB, but they have gained automatic passage to the Round of 16, crucially avoiding a two-leg playoff next month which would have been an added strain on their injury hit squad.

The Australian manager even poked fun at the club’s injury issues with him jokingly acting as if he had pulled a hamstring when the ball came his way, but slipped by him, on the touch line.

There was some reprieve from the medical team with centre back Micky van de Ven making his return to the starting line-up from a hamstring injury that had kept him out since their 4-3 home Premier League loss to Chelsea in early December.

It was an ideal comeback for the speedy Dutchman, who was subbed off at half time, with Tottenham’s undermanned defence, who have been majorly under the pump in recent times, enjoying an easier night as the ball was almost exclusively entrenched in Elfsborg’s half for the opening 45 minutes.

Spurs were greeted by a yellow wall however, as their visitors defended strongly, clogging up the penalty area to prevent the hosts from taking advantage of any of their 12 shots on goal, or the 83% possession they had in the opening half.

The final matchday of the league phase was just Elfsborg’s fourth competitive outing since the Swedish season wrapped up in November.

In comparison, this was Tottenham 18th match in that time.

Elfsborg needed a draw to book their place in the knockout playoff for a chance to make the Round of 16, so they were content to channel their energy into sitting back and defending to try claim the point they desired.

Van de Ven was not the only big name Postecoglou opted to only give a half with captain Son Heung-min producing a brilliant first half, looking a class above, before making way for Kulusevski, who strongly backed his manager during the week, at the break.

Rodrigo Bentancur joined Son and van de Ven on the bench for the second half with Yves Bissouma replacing him in midfield.

Although, van de Ven’s replacement Radu Dragusin went down with a knee injury in the second half to add further to the casualty ward.

Tottenham face an away trip to Brentford on Sunday before heading north to Anfield for the second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final against Liverpool, which they lead 1-0.

In the Europa League Round of 16, they will face one of Real Sociedad, Galatasaray, AZ Alkmaar or Midtjylland.