Thu 05 November 2020, 21:30
Tottenham HotspurJose Mourinho felt we always had proceedings under control as we ran out 3-1 winners against Ludogorets in Bulgaria on Thursday.
Harry Kane marked his 300th appearance in our colours with his 200th goal for us to set us on our way at the Ludogorets Arena in Razgrad before teeing up Lucas Moura to double our lead in a dominant first-half performance.
Harry went off at half-time as Jose made changes, Claudiu Keseru pulled one back for the hosts, but we continued on the front foot and just seconds after coming on, Heung-Min Son squared for Giovani Lo Celso to restore our two-goal lead.
It means we’ve won two of our first three group stage games in the Europa League, with the return match against winless Ludogorets to come on matchday four after the international break.
At this moment, six points, two matches at home (remaining), I think we have to do the job and qualify, of course
“It was good enough to win,” said Jose, assessing our display against the Bulgarian champions. “The game was under control from the beginning, good ambition from the beginning, hitting the post, creating situations, scoring two goals - the first half was a solid performance. In the second half we gave an opportunity for them to score a goal - slow defensive transition, not complete commitment in the moment of the ball being lost - but, after that, again a positive reaction to score the goal that gave us a comfortable result and three points that we need.”
With the result coming off the back of last week’s 1-0 reverse against Royal Antwerp, Jose added: “We couldn’t lose two matches, we couldn’t go with three points to the last three matches, because then these matches would become knockout matches almost, so at this moment, six points, two matches at home (remaining), I think we have to do the job and qualify, of course.”
The Head Coach didn’t need many words to praise striker Harry after his latest milestones, which leave him just eight goals shy of Bobby Smith in second on our list of all-time top scorers: “I don’t need to speak because the numbers, they speak for themselves,” he said.
