Tottenham Hotspur have qualified for the group stage of the Conference League. A week after the surprising 1-0 defeat at Paços de Ferreira, manager Nuno Espírito Santo’s team was 3-0 too strong for the opponent from Portugal. Failure to reach the group stage would have meant the Londoners would not have entered the group stage of a European tournament for the first time since 2009/10.
Nuno opted for no fewer than nine changes on Thursday evening compared to Sunday’s 0-1 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League. Only Lucas Moura and Eric Dier kept their places and as a result, Harry Kane, among others, was allowed to appear at the starting signal. For the latter, who confirmed this week that he will remain at Tottenham, it was his first starting spot of the season.
After fifteen seconds, Kane already shot the ball wide of André Ferreira’s goal, but in the eighth minute it was hit. After good preparatory work by Bryan Gil, the Englishman worked the ball under the goalkeeper: 1-0. Nuno’s team was the dominant side and after more than half an hour of play, just after Gil’s bet on the post, Kane also took the 2-0 after Giovani Lo Celso failed to get the ball behind Ferreira.
Paços de Ferreira knew that an away goal and a 2-1 tie would mean extra time, but the Portuguese barely came close to Pierluigi Gollini’s goal area after the break. Twenty minutes before the end, the 3-0 was fortunately for Tottenham: Antunes headed the ball from a free kick by Lo Celso behind his own goalkeeper.
In the remaining playing time, Tottenham’s 4-0 hung in the air. Heung-min Son, who came in for Kane, aimed the ball face to face with Ferreira just wide and a bet by Steven Bergwijn, who came in for Gil at the same time, even hit the post. Ferreira also came out on top in a rematch for Son.
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