Tottenham Hotspur beat Brentford 3-2 to secure fourth place in the table. Eleven minutes just after the break were enough for Spurs to turn the game in their direction
Spurs coach Ange Postecoglu made two changes to his starting eleven after the 1-0 defeat to Manchester City in the FA Cup. Skipp and Maddison started in place of Höjbjerg and Johnson. Werner was once again in the starting line-up.
Visiting coach Thomas Frank made just one change after the 3-2 win against Nottingham Forest. Nörgaard started for Damsgaard
Brentford’s transitional play creates danger
Tottenham made the better start to the game, set the tone and had two first attempts on goal through Skipp (4th) and Kulusevski (7th). Brentford closed down the spaces and switched quickly. Maupay initially missed the target (10) and the supposed 0:1 was disallowed for offside (13). Two minutes later, the Bees’ goal counted again. The starting point was a misplaced pass from Udogie, a few seconds later Maupay dusted off after Toney had previously failed to beat Vicario (15).
Spurs then improved and again managed to prevent the visitors from switching play. However, Werner (21) and a hammer shot from Richarlison (25) initially failed to equalize. Skipp (36), who headed past the goal from a few meters out, was also denied a 1:1. Vicario was alert at the other end and saved from Toney’s header (45′) to ensure the score remained 0-1 at the break
Spurs turn the game around within minutes
Postecoglu seemed to have found the right words, as it took just eleven minutes for the game to be turned on its head: Udogie, who scored at the second attempt after a pass from Werner (48′), Johnson, who finished off a strong individual effort from Werner at the second post (49′) and Richarlison, who pushed Maddison’s blocked finish over the line (56′), made it 3-1.
Brentford were shocked, but were able to pull their heads out of the noose as the game wore on. First Toney missed from distance by a whisker (63′), then he made the okocha – but pushed the ball past the goal – before he was overlooked by Udiogie and only had to beat Vicario after his blunder: 3:2 (67′). Tottenham let the ball run again, Brentford failed to make any offensive impact at this stage.
The Bees almost equalized in stoppage time, but Baptiste failed to beat Vicario with his volley. In the end, it was a deserved 3-2 win for Spurs, who took advantage of Aston Villa’s slip-up the day before to move up to fourth place. Tottenham then visit Everton FC on Saturday (1.30pm), while Brentford will face the next heavyweights when they host Manchester City on Monday (9pm).
