Aug 11, 2019 | szn0007
"TO PLAY IN THIS AMAZING STADIUM WITH SOME GREAT PLAYERS AND TO HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO SCORE MY FIRST GOAL, EVERYTHING WAS PERFECT."
Tanguy Ndombele
A wonderful atmosphere kicked off at Tottenham’s new billion dollar stadium as we welcomed Championship play-off winners Aston villa in our season’s first game.
Spurs were in their famous lilywhite, while the Villa were in their traditional claret and blue.
Spurs Starting XI : Lloris, Walker-Peters, Alderweireld, Sanchez, Rose, Sissoko, Winks, Ndombele, Lamela, Lucas Moura, Kane.
Subs: Gazzaniga, Dier, Aurier, Skipp, Wanyama, Nkoudou, Eriksen.
Aston Villa Starting XI : Heaton, Elmohamady, Mings, Engels, Taylor, McGinn, Hourihane, Trezeguet, Grealish, El Ghazi, Wesley.
Subs: Steer, Douglas Luiz, Lansbury, Konsa, Targett, Jota, Kodjia.
Both Deadline day signings Ryan Sessegnon and Giovani Lo Celso were missing in the match day squad. The most eye catching player to miss the match day squad was Jan Vertonghen, while Dane – Christian Eriksen was in the bench.
Game kicked off with possession dominating play from Spurs. Villa looked little shaky in the opening 5 minutes with very little touch of the ball. First real chance of the game arrived for Lucas Moura, when delicious cross from left hand side of the field from Rose met Moura’s head. Sadly, the heading fell kindly in the hands of Villa’s new keeper Tom Heaton.
Villa hammered the first blow of the game when a fine individual run from John McGinn was not matched by left back Danny Rose, and McGinn fired a low driven shot to bottom right corner of Lloris’s goal to give the away team a goal lead.
Spurs were trying to fight back but were missing critical touches in the final third of the field. They were certainly missing the playmaker Christian Eriksen. Spurs kept trying hard, keeping more than 60% of the possessions, but couldn’t break the defence of Villa. Villa conceded 60 goals in the championship last season, but this current defence looked solid with Mings in the heart of the defence.
A great chance fell to Kane just before the half time, when NDombele’s cheeky lob cross found Kane’s head, which he headed above the crossbar from inside 15 feet of the goal. A minute later, kane was again through the Villa’s defence after a great through ball from Lamela. A great chance was not taken by Kane as he shot the ball wide of the goal, relief to him he was given offside by the linesman.
Spurs gets the second half underway. The home team took full control of the game dominating in every department. The only barrier between Spurs’ goal was towering defender Mings, who was everywhere , putting bodies in the line. It was looking a frustrating day for Spurs as every attack was neutralized by Villa’s defence.
Eriksen was brought on by the Manager to put more power in Spurs attack.
Introduction of Christian Eriksen took immediate effect as he started taking control of the balls in the middle of the field.
A frustrating day came to an end when Eriksen’s great cross was finely touched by Sanchez, which was saved by Heaton but the ball was gathered by Kane who passed it to Moura. Moura played a beautiful layoff and a sensational strike from new man NDombele found the bottom corner of the goal. With around 15 minutes to play, NDombele was pumped up to shorten his debut goal celebration and to restart the game as quickly as possible. Christian Eriksen was then influential in every move Spurs made.
Dane’s corner was defended by Villa, which fell to Rose feet, who was fouled just outside the box to award Spurs a promising set piece in promising position. Christian Eriksen stood up of free kick which was saved acrobatically by England’s keeper Tom Heaton.
Spurs were trying hard to take the lead and the lead came in the 86th minute of the game when lamela robbed the ball from Villa’s captain Grealish’s feet. Lamela took a shot which was blocked by Villa’s defender and ball fell kindly to Kane’s feet , and he made no mistake as he fired the ball pass Heaton’s goal. His first goal in the new stadium.
4 minutes later, a fine run from Moussssssssaaaa Sissoko provided a ball to Harry Kane who calmly put the ball to the bottom right corner. The scoreline did no justice to Villa’s enormous effort, but clinical second half finish from Spurs wrapped up a fine win for them.
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