Vinicius opens account and Winks hits stunner against Ludogorets - report and debrief

Carlos Vinicius opened his goalscoring account in our colours and Harry Winks netted his first European goal in bizarre fashion as we cruised to a comfortable win over Ludogorets at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Thursday evening.

Our Brazilian front man struck twice in the first half to put us in control against the Bulgarian champions, Winks’ speculative effort from over 50 yards out beat visiting goalkeeper Plamen Iliev midway through the second half to make it 3-0 and Lucas Moura wrapped up the scoring with a fine finish with 17 minutes remaining.

It took us just 16 minutes to take the lead when Tanguy Ndombele found Dele Alli 30 yards from goal, he attempted to thread a pass through to Gareth Bale only for the ball to deflect off Dragos Grigore and into the path of Vinicius who strode into the area and beat Iliev with a clinical finish.

It was a particularly comfortable first 45 minutes for us, with the statistics showing that the visitors had only managed five touches of the ball in our half of the pitch in the opening half-hour and we made our dominance pay with a second goal on 34 minutes. Ndombele was again the architect, driving through the heart of Ludogorets’ midfield before firing a low shot from 25 yards which Iliev did well to save sprawling to his right. But he could only push the ball out to Dele, who unselfishly cut the rebound back to the edge of the six-yard box for Vinicius to smash into an empty net.

The third arrived in bizarre fashion as Winks received a throw-in out wide on the left, over 50 yards from goal and lofted the ball over Iliev and into the net. Whether he was looking for the run of Bale on the far side or spotted the goalkeeper off his line and went for it, only Winks will know!

It became 4-0 in the 73rd minute when substitute Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg won possession high up the pitch, Dele’s cross found Vinicius who set up Lucas to fire home a right-footed shot from 15 yards out.

With the win wrapped up, Jose Mourinho made a triple change with eight minutes remaining to give three Academy players their debuts. Alfie Whiteman replaced Joe Hart in goal, Harvey White came on for Dele and Dane Scarlett wrote his name into our record books when he took the place of Lucas as he became our youngest-ever player at 16 years, 247 days old. A good night all round!

A comfortable night in N17

The visitors had endured a troubled build-up to this game with coronavirus cases affecting their plans and they adopted a defensive strategy right from the start of the match. But we never let them settle into any type of rhythm and were always on top, the fact that Ludogorets didn’t manage a single shot at goal for the entire 90 minutes showing just how dominant we were.

The goals came at good times, Vinicius getting off the mark with a smart finish and then applying the finishing touch after great work from Ndombele and Dele for his and our second. In between times, Bale’s dipping effort flew just over the bar, Winks hit a left-foot long-ranger which was just wide and in the 32nd minute, Ben Davies collected Dele’s pass in the left channel of the area and cracked an effort against the outside of the post.

There was no change to the pattern of play after the interval and we almost made it 3-0 when Matt Doherty’s ball to the back post found Bale but Iliev raced out to smother his effort. Winks then scored only the third goal of his Spurs career in strange circumstances – his angled shot from way out actually being measured as 56 yards from goal. He tried again later on from only 25 yards but wasn’t as accurate and his shot went well over!

We continued to have the upper hand and Lucas got his reward for another typically hard-working performance with our fourth goal, which then allowed the youngsters to enter the fray. And even though they only had a few minutes on the pitch, they were all involved in the action. Hart had barely touched the ball with his hands during his 82 minutes, but Whiteman was called upon almost immediately to gather a corner and thwart any danger while at the other end, White went close with a shot from the edge of the area and Scarlett – fresh from his four-goal haul for our Under-18s against Southampton at the weekend – also had a good sight of goal in the dying seconds but his low angled drive went wide of the far post.

The win puts us back in joint-top position with Royal Antwerp in Group J and a win next week against LASK will guarantee us a place in the knockout stages. Ludogorets, meanwhile, are eliminated from the competition.

The boy Dane good!

History was made at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as Scarlett became our youngest-ever player. The Hillingdon-born forward only went full-time with our Academy in the summer but featured for the first team in pre-season friendlies at home to Ipswich Town and Reading.

This was a big step up though and his appearance saw him surpass the previous record-holder John Bostock, who was aged 16 years and 295 days when he made his Spurs debut in November, 2008.

Meanwhile, we scored in our 25th consecutive home fixture in the Europa League (including qualification), equalling the longest home scoring run in this competition which is also held by Sevilla and Villarreal. As for the team news, Japhet Tanganga was back for his second start of the season, having lined up against Chelsea in the League Cup back in September, Doherty returned after testing positive for coronavirus on 11 November, and was joined by Dele, Vinicius, Hart and Winks in the starting XI. Ben Davies captained the team.

Reaction on Spurs TV

'Nice for the Academy'

Jose Mourinho said afterwards: "Job done, but not done in the group phase, because nine points is not enough. We need to get more points, so two more matches to do it."

On the debuts of Scarlett, White and Whiteman, he added: "It’s nice for the Academy, nice for those responsible in the Academy, their coaches, and also nice for their colleagues, because their colleagues will think their time can also arrive. It’s a good gift to them, but it’s also a gift the Club as a whole deserves, and I’m happy with that."

Match data

Goals: Spurs – Vinicius 16, 34, Winks 63, Lucas 73.

Yellow cards: Spurs – Ndombele, Hojbjerg; Ludogorets – Keseru, Despodov.

Referee: Giorgi Kruashvili (Georgia).

Venue: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Weather: Light clouds, light winds, three degrees.