Our UEFA Europa League group stage campaign opened in perfect fashion on Thursday night as we brushed aside Austrian outfit LASK with a comfortable 3-0 victory at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The opening goal came in the 18th minute when captain on the night Ben Davies clipped a lovely ball forward which Carlos Vinicius – making his debut – controlled superbly with one touch before delivering a perfect square pass with his second, finding Lucas Moura unmarked in the box and he coolly converted past Alexander Schlager.
We doubled our advantage nine minutes later with a goal which stemmed from excellent work by Sergio Reguilon, who burst past four LASK defenders as he came in off the left flank, laid the ball to Erik Lamela who in turn found Gareth Bale in the left channel. His low cross was meant for Vinicius but in trying to prevent the ball reaching its target, Andres Andrade stuck out a leg and diverted it past his own goalkeeper.
And it was almost 3-0 within 20 seconds of the restart as we won the ball back quickly and Lamela forced Schlager into a save low down to his left.
The visitors had their best chances of the first half in the final minute, the first falling to their skipper Gernot Trauner whose fierce drive was blocked well by Matt Doherty before Joe Hart produced an excellent diving save to palm away Andreas Gruber’s curling left-footed effort from 20 yards out.
We were always in control throughout the second period and eventually added to our tally with six minutes remaining thanks to another well-worked effort. Davies pinged a pass out wide to Doherty on the right, his cross was met with a delicious cushioned header from Vinicius into the path of substitute Heung-Min Son just inside the area and he produced a neat finish to wrap up the win
