London – If you were making a plan for Tottenham to complete their manager’s notes on the trophies still in the second year in two years, a key component should be a heung-min son playing something closer to the level of his first years. This player may well be the best in the Europa League, the genre that can swing a tie in favor of the Spurs.
This is the son that Tottenham obtained Thursday evening. They had to wait a while, but after his block won the hosts a high revival of which Wilson Odobert brought the level of the Spurs, you could see lightning of the best son. Combine this with an incisor James Maddison and there were enough in this team to shake up the nerves that came when Peer Koopmeiners punished the negligence of Odobert and Lucas Bergvall to draw an AZ Alkmaar level per hour.
The fingerprints of Son were everywhere from Odobert because they had been for the goal of Maddison between the two. With an incisive left flank – Djed Spence was a real danger on overlapping in the second half – the hosts had too much for AZ. Angel Postcoglou lives to fight another day, a quarter -final against Eintracht Frankfurt which seems completely more negotiable if they have the son of this evening.
It is not as if this version of the Tottenham captain had been completely absent this season. Few attackers through the Premier League would sniff 11 assists and nine goals in 39 games in all competitions. Similarly, 0.47 planned non-penalty objectives plus the expected aid (NPXG + XA) per 90 minutes is at the level or around an eminently useful level. Again, for the best part of a decade, his son was much better than useful. In the twenties, the figure NPXG + XA could be up 0.7 and as one of the two -feet attackers on the planet, it could surpass this number expected by a decent margin without any real sign of an imminent cold sequence.
At 32, it is natural that he is no longer quite this player. The rear of the Premier League are more athletic than they have ever been and the preponderance of the teams leaving three or four defenders means less space so that it attacks at the counter with such a devastating effect. When goals and assists came for a son, they were often against the least lights of the League: holes of assists against Southampton and Ipswich, two goals against Everton.
AZ could integrate into this group. The difference this time is that his son’s big game was really counting. Do not overthrow the 1-0 deficit of their tasteless display in the first leg and the Tottenham season, was completed in March. The use of Postcoglou could have been too. Instead, it is possible to believe that their head coach could earn something during the second year. For the first time since December 8, Micky Van de Ven and Cristian Romero began a match together, the first spending an hour in which he showed an impressive burst to refuse Ernest Poku.
Bergvall box was a blow, but a post-international break, the treatment room could be a lonely place for Kevin Danso and Radu Dragusin. There will be something to play on the arrival of spring, big games so that his son relies.
It was a slow start for the Spurs Talisman and for those around him. A jump race through the midfielder by Odobert seemed to have an AZ on the rear foot, a first touch of sound and the visitors were able to go back in sufficient numbers. Tottenham played the game where they wanted, but each attack seemed to require a single pass too much.
Always pushing the game into half AZ would soon be rewarded. A loose pass on the left with all kinds of unattractive options. He chose the worst of them, launching the ball in son. Dominic Solanke was the recognition of the accusation, by quadriching the ball for Odobert to bring back his first goal to Tottenham Colors to the house.
For the son, in particular, it was a moment of bulb. He had unearthed the older player himself and in an instant, he fell in the midfield, turned and charged to the goal. Shortly after, he struck the post-briefs, loading with two red shirts while he was taking the ball of his own half on the repair surface in a flash. The only thing that was not the real fashion son was the insufficient finishes.
Regardless, it would simply outspoken this part of the game. Cutting to his right, everything seemed to open up to his to strike one. Instead, he rolled the ball to his right and Maddison, a precise finish in the lower corner which should really have killed the tie. It had been son to his best. It would not last for the rest of the match but would appear repeatedly. At least he is still there.
A moment of juvenile indiscretion – Bergvall gave the ball against the otherwise exceptional Odubert to inadvertent Koopmeiners – had Tottenham lowering, but their great players intensified time. Smart feint of Maddison killed the AZ press and advanced the Spurs on the left, where his son held long enough for Spence to stretch beyond him. A cup, a film by Solanke and Odobert converted to the rear post with 20 minutes to go.
A winner of the cup might have killed from there rather than giving Mexx Meerdink a chance to equalize late. Tottenham does not yet resemble prohibitive favorites, in part because they do not yet get 90 minutes of threads to his best. However, if the latter occurs, there will be no more dangerous force in the Europa League.
