Jose’s verdict on KF Shkendija

Jose Mourinho summed up our 3-1 win against KF Shkendija in two words: “Job done.”

It was another test in Europa League qualifying as the home team from North Macedonia equalised Erik Lamela’s early strike in a purple patch at the start of the second half.

Jose changed it around, Lucas Moura, Giovani Lo Celso and Harry Kane came off the bench, Lucas set up Heung-Min Son’s goal to put us 2-1 up before Sonny crossed for Harry to head in European goal number 32 to see us home.

Victory now takes us into the play-off round for a place in the group stage, and after two tricky ties in second and third qualifying, we now face Maccabi Haifa from Israel at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium next Thursday (1 October).

“It was job done,” said Jose at the National Arena Todor Proeski in Skopje. “That’s the most important thing. Job done, no extra time, no extra 30 minutes that we don’t need and no injuries. It’s about that.

“Was the performance good? No. Was it bad? No. It was difficult. The pitch was not good. The empty stadium doesn’t help. The (first) goal, too early, probably, didn’t help for the rest of the game, the feeling was ‘it’s done’ and it was quite easy. It was not easy and not done.

“After their goal, we had to react. I reacted on the bench, the players reacted on the pitch and we scored two goals to win it. Before that, we had headers from Harry and Coco centimetres away, so no doubt we deserved to win.

“It’s not a moment for great performances, the Bulgarian game or this one, no, it’s job done and now one less match, finally at home, to get into the group phase.”