200 up for Kane as we get back on track in Europe - report and debrief

Harry Kane became only the third player in our history to score 200 goals for the Club as we picked up another victory in Group J of the UEFA Europa League.

Our talismanic forward opened the scoring against Bulgarian outfit Ludogorets at the Ludogorets Arena in Razgrad to mark his milestone on what was his 300th Spurs appearance in all competitions, and we completed the win with goals from Lucas Moura and Giovani Lo Celso, the home side netting a consolation through Claudiu Keseru.

It was well-known in the match build-up that Kane needed one goal to reach the significant landmark and it was almost achieved in the first minute but he spurned a glorious chance having been set up by Harry Winks.

And when he crashed a 22-yard shot against the post five minutes later, he must have thought it was going to be ‘one of those nights’! But Kane didn’t need to worry as we dominated the opening 45 minutes, creating chance after chance and his moment came 13 minutes in, Lucas sending over a corner and Kane evaded his marker to head past Plamen Iliev.

It was one-way traffic at this stage and after missing a number of opportunities, we added a second in the 32nd minute when our three forwards combined, Gareth Bale threading a pass inside left-back Anton Nedyalkov to Kane and his low cross was converted at the back post by Lucas.

The pattern of the game didn’t change as we launched wave after wave of attack, Iliev saving twice within a minute from two Kane efforts - one with his head, one with a right-foot shot - as we continued to create chances.

But five minutes into the second half, Ludogorets pulled one back after Bernard Tekpetey’s shot from the edge of the area deflected up off Winks and fell kindly to Keseru, who reacted quickest to volley past Joe Hart from eight yards out.

Having made two half-time substitutions - Carlos Vinicius and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg for Kane and Moussa Sissoko - Jose Mourinho then replaced Lucas with Heung-Min Son on 61 minutes and just 17 seconds later, the South Korean set up Lo Celso to tap home our third.

That ensured we regained control of the contest again and managed the remainder of the game without too much fuss to move level with Royal Antwerp on six points at the top of our group, with the Belgians still to play later this evening against LASK.

Chances galore on comfortable night

After a poor result and performance against Royal Antwerp a week ago, we made sure there was no repeat this time around with an accomplished and aggressive display in Bulgaria.

Right from the start we were on the attack, Kane missing that early chance while Bale’s 25-yard free-kick in the eighth minute bounced just in front of Iliev, who did well to push the ball away for a corner.

Kane’s 200th Spurs goal was just reward for the bright start and the opportunities continued to come as we completely controlled the first half, with Lo Celso and Lucas both not far away with efforts from just outside the area in quick succession.

Lucas then almost got on the end of Kane’s low cross, but was edged off the ball by Jordan Ikoko whose clearance fell to Matt Doherty and his shot was parried over from close range by Iliev. A second goal was no more than we deserved, with Kane this time assisting for Lucas to score.

It was something of a surprise when Ludogorets - top of the Bulgarian league - pulled one back through Keseru but normal service resumed quickly after. Vinicius blazed Lo Celso’s cross over the bar when he really should have hit the target, before the Argentine midfielder fired wide from 18 yards after great build-up play from Bale and Doherty.

Lo Celso’s performance deserved a goal and it duly arrived courtesy of Son’s assist with his first touch to restore our two-goal advantage. In total, we had 22 shots at goal, nine on target as we bossed the game throughout and although Dominic Yankov forced an easy save from Hart and Cauly Souza curled well wide for the hosts moments later, we were rarely troubled.

Night to remember for Kane

For a goalscoring machine such as Kane, he was never going to be stuck on 199 goals for long and it was fitting that his double century should fall on his 300th appearance - coincidentally coming in the same competition in which he netted his first goal, against Shamrock Rovers.

Perhaps most impressively, that was the England striker’s 100th away goal in our colours as he achieved the perfect home and away split for his 200. He has now netted 12 goals in his last 10 European matches, with a total of 36 in 60 Euro games for us.

Kane now has his sights set on Bobby Smith’s total of 208 Spurs goals, while the all-time Club record of 266 goals for Jimmy Greaves will hopefully soon be his subsequent target.

Kane was actually making his first Europa League start of the season as Jose Mourinho made six changes from the starting line-up against Brighton on Sunday - in came Hart, Ben Davies, Winks, Lo Celso, Bale and Lucas in place of Hugo Lloris, Sergio Reguilon, Hojbjerg, Erik Lamela, Tanguy Ndombele and Son.

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Important victory for Jose

Head Coach Jose said afterwards: "We couldn’t lose two matches, we couldn’t go with three points into the last three matches, because then these matches become knockout matches almost, so, at this moment, six points, two matches at home and I think we have to do the job and qualify, of course."

Match data

Goals: Spurs – Kane 13, Lucas 32, Lo Celso 62; Ludogorets – Keseru 50.

Yellow cards: Spurs – Doherty; Ludogorets - Anicet.

Referee: Fran Jovic (Croatia).

Venue: Ludogorets Arena, Razgrad.

Weather: Cloudy night, nine degrees.