Tottenham’s young players ride early storm to secure significant Europa League win | OneFootball

Tottenham Hotspur continued their winning start to the 2024-25 Europa League thanks to a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Ferencvaros on Thursday evening.

Although we have an international break coming up, the games have been coming thick and fast for Tottenham. Since returning from the September international break, Tottenham have played six matches, always having a weekend fixture and a midweek game.

So, for the sixth match against Ferencvaros, Ange Postecoglou opted to rotate. Tottenham were favourites for their trip to Hungary, and will have an eye on their trip to Brighton on Sunday.

While there were some big players in the starting XI, namely Guglielmo Vicario, Cristian Romero and Pedro Porro, this was very much a rotational line up. And it was built around youth.

Postecoglou named four teenagers in his starting XI, the most for an English side in a major European competition. Mikey Moore, Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall and Will Lankshear were the four teenagers, the latter making his senior debut. Moore was the youngest of the group aged 17 years and 53 days, the youngest player to start for an English club in the Europa League since Jake Bidwell for Everton in December 2009. And he’s perhaps the one with the most promise.

But it wasn’t going to be an easy task.

Ferencvaros have been solid at home against English opposition in major European competitions. In their previous 10 such matches, Ferencvaros had only lost once, beaten by Leeds in the European Cup in 1969. They’d won five and drawn the other four.

At the same time, Tottenham had won just one of their last nine away games across all European competitions, losing six.

And it wasn’t a good start. Ferencvaros looked like a team full of confidence, smelling blood in the young and fringe players in Tottenham’s XI. They thought they had taken the lead, when Barnabas Varga had the ball in the back of the net in the 17th minute. But, after Ferencvaros’ celebrations, it was ruled out by VAR for a tight offside.

The goal kicked life into Tottenham, who grew into the game and took the lead through Pape Matar Sarr six minutes later. The move came through a cute ball from Moore, which was deflected into the path of Lankshear. He was tackled, but Bergvall was following in and bundled the ball into the path of Sarr, who squeezed home from a tight angle. It wasn’t the most intentional of assists, but it was an assist nonetheless. And a goal that saw three teenagers involved in the build up.

Lankshear and Bergvall were taken off in the 65th minute and replaced by the more experienced James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski. But they had done their job.

Lankshear had two shots and six touches in the opposition box, more than any Tottenham player at the time of his substitution. He had also created one chance and completed all 10 of his passes, including four in the final third. Bergvall had two chances created alongside his assist, while also putting in three crosses and making one tackle.

For Gray, this was a game played out of position. A central midfielder with some experience at right-back, Gray was played alongside Cristian Romero at the heart of the Tottenham defence. And it was an impressive performance. Gray made three tackles and three clearances, while also having 82 touches — the third most among Tottenham players.

But a lot of the plaudits went to Moore. On top of his involvement in the first goal, Moore also played a part in Tottenham’s second with another good pass in the build up. He ended the game with 68 touches, the fifth-most among his teammates, creating one chance. He also made the second-most passes in the final third (33), put in five crosses and had five touches in the opposition box.

“I thought Moore was really good, really confident,” Joe Cole told TNT Sports.

“These modern players that we keep producing, that are comfortable on the ball, driving with it. He looked like he’d been there for years. He was excellent.

“They all did very well but he was the pick of the bunch out of the youngsters.”

He added: “I think he’s one of those where Ange Postecoglou would have looked at him in pre-season and thought, ‘He might be useful this year’. And every time he plays, he ticks another box.

“And I think you’ll see a lot more of him. I think he’s a star and I think he’s certainly in the frame for the weekend.”

Brennan Johnson came off the bench to make it 2-0 to Tottenham, which proved vital as Varga did eventually get on the scoresheet for Ferencvaros, setting up a nervy finish.

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