Thu 16 July 2020, 14:07
Tottenham HotspurFeeling buoyant after Wednesday’s 3-1 triumph over Newcastle United, Harry Kane still believes we'll need maximum points from our final two games of the season if we are to secure a European place.
Now four games unbeaten, Harry described the result on Tyneside as ‘a massive win’ – especially as it moved us into seventh in the Premier League table and back into the mix for the Europa League places.
In an end-to-end encounter in the north east, we had taken the lead in the first half via a clinical strike from Heung-Min Son but, just 11 minutes into the second, Matt Ritchie levelled for the home side with a stunning strike. Yet, like against Arsenal on Sunday, we once again showed character and responded quickly after conceding as our number 10 put us back ahead on the hour mark before he made sure of all three points with his second of the game in the final minute.
That makes it back-to-back wins for us and three in our last four outings. Now, with just two more games to go - starting with the visit of Leicester City on Sunday - the forward does not want to let that momentum slip and his eyes are solely on securing all of the six points that remain.
“It’s a massive win,” the 26-year-old declared pitchside at St James’ Park. “We said before, ‘three games, it has to be three wins’ if we want to be in with a shout of reaching the Europa League.
“Arsenal was a big win for us and that gave us momentum coming into these final three games. Every game is tough, and it’s been an up and down season for us, especially our away form, so we knew it was important to get the three points and thankfully we did.
“It was more open than we would have liked, especially in the second half. It was end-to-end stuff. It was a difficult game away from home, not an easy team to play against and we probably didn’t have our A-game, but we managed to find a way. We didn’t finish off our counter-attacks but once they scored, we bounced back quickly with the second goal and then finished it off at the death.
“Now, some of the teams around us have to play each other, so we’d imagine two more wins and we should be in the Europa League places, but we can only take care of ourselves and see what happens. It’s a massive game on Sunday now.”
On a personal note, it was another landmark outing for Harry as the striker notched up club career goal numbers 200 and 201. Those efforts came in his 350th appearance meaning our number 10 has also reached the 200 club at an even quicker rate than players such as Cristiano Ronaldo (379th game), Sergio Aguero (396th), Thierry Henry (439th) and Wayne Rooney (449th).
Meanwhile, his strikes on Wednesday night also saw him edge past the 20-goal mark for the season. It is the sixth year in a row that he has done so and he is the only Spurs player in history to ever achieve that feat.
On reaching 200 club career goals, he added: “It’s a nice milestone to hit but as always when I’m told about these milestones, it’s always on to the next 100 or 200. It’s gone quickly - I’ve been a professional now for eight or nine years and it just flies by.
“In the last couple of years I’ve had a few injuries as well, and they’ve kept me out of quite a lot of games. (20 goals a season) is a nice, consistent level I’d like to keep at and I’m happy to do it again this season. Two more games to go, let’s see how many more we can get…”
