Tottenham Hotspur noticed their excellent begin to the Europa League go up in smoke on Thursday in a tough journey to Istanbul to cace Turkish champions Galatasaray.
It is a high-powered Galatasaray who turned the primary in Tremendous Lig historical past to interrupt the 100-point barrier final season – Victor Osimhen has additionally joined the ranks since then. They’re among the many contenders to win the Europa League this season, which might make them solely the second Turkish aspect to carry a continental trophy after their earlier history-making second in 2000.
Spurs had overwhelmed Qarabag, Ferencvaros and AZ on the primary three matchdays, however Ange Postecoglou’s group had been no match within the first half. Yunus Akgun spectacularly opened the scoring inside a couple of minutes of kick-off and, regardless of Will Lankshear pulling one again comparatively quickly after, Osimhen decisively netted twice in fast succession in the direction of the top of the half.
Lankshear was later despatched off on a bittersweet evening for {the teenager}, punished for a naively reckless problem after being dispossessed and attempting to win the ball. And whereas Dominic Solanke did go on to cut back the deficit to 3-2, Spurs could not discover a strategy to get again on degree phrases with a participant much less.
Galatasaray additionally had the ball within the internet a fourth time by Mauro Icardi, solely to see it dominated offisde.
It wasn’t actually the evening for good Spurs performances. Lankshear was on target for rave evaluations till his dismissal, whereas Solanke did effectively to return off the bench and rating. However one participant who modified issues when he emerged at half-time was Rodrigo Bentancur.
The Uruguayan gave Spurs a footing that they’d been missing within the first half, serving to to calm issues down, stemming the movement of Galatasaray hazard and finally making certain that, as an alternative of collapsing with ten gamers, they remained aggressive and within the sport till the top.
Spurs centre-back Radu Dragusin was given the run round, plain and easy. His passing was sub-par and he misplaced almost as many duels as he received throughout the course of the sport.
He wasn’t solely liable for the targets that Osimhen scored, performed right into a lower than excellent scenario by Ben Davies for the primary of the Nigerian’s brace. However Dragusin lacked the attention of what was round him and maybe must have seen that the open cross was again to Fraser Forster as an alternative of attempting to show and critically lose the ball. For Osimhen’s second, motion between the 2 Spurs centre-backs was sufficient to get the area wanted to go in unchecked.
