Jose: “That’s the Gio we love”

Jose Mourinho was full in his praise after Giovani Lo Celso lit up Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, driving us to victory against Royal Antwerp and therefore finishing top of our Europa League group on Thursday evening.

Gio was back to his best in the 2-0 win, the icing on the cake his clinical finish for the second goal on 71 minutes to put the issue beyond doubt. Carlos Vinicius opened the scoring on 57 minutes as mission was accomplished against the Belgians and we now go into Monday’s Round of 32 draw as one of the seeded teams.

Outstanding in the second half of last season, niggling injuries have restricted Gio to 16 appearances - eight starts after last night - so far this term, but he’s clearly getting back to his best, much to Jose’s delight.

“That’s the Gio that we love, that’s the Gio who last season appeared and stayed until he had his injury problem,” said Jose.

“I said at the beginning of this season that we needed to wait a little bit for him, he was coming step by step and today he had not just a technical, quality performance, but also a physical performance. He was strong and he lasted the 90 minutes at a good intensity.

“We need him. The fact is that we need every player, and Gio is a player of high quality.

“We started the season without him and played with Sissoko, Ndombele and Hojbjerg, which, playing well, we didn’t touch many times, but Gio is a player of super quality.

“Also, because he’s multi-functional, he can play in different positions like he did in the second part of the game from the right side, so, very good, and I’m so happy for him.”

Watch Gio's goal - highlights