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Paços de Ferreira 1 Tottenham Hotspur 0
Was this a glimpse into the post-Harry Kane future? Tottenham Hotspur certainly don’t hope, as the England captain’s lesser-known team-mates have absolutely failed to show up in the not-so-glamorous occasion of a Europa League play-off.
What a bleak and uninspiring evening for Tottenham and Nuno Espirito Santo, who oversaw such a contrasting performance against Manchester City last weekend. It was a changed team, in all fairness, with newbies and products for youngsters looking to make their mark, but it was far from promising for the fringe members of the team.
The good news is that Tottenham still have the second leg next week to turn things around against Paços de Ferreira, who finished fifth in the Portuguese league last season but more than deserved his home win.
Maybe Kane will be needed for the return leg, if he’s still a Tottenham player by then. Maybe Son Heung-min will come back too. Nuno will know like everyone else that his team will need a lot more offensive momentum to qualify for the group stages of this new continental competition.
A lone goal from Lucas Silva was enough for Pacos de Ferreira, who did an admirable job of disrupting the pace of the visitors, even if it wasn’t quite the star-studded Tottenham squad their fans might have hoped to see.
Neither Tottenham A team nor B team feature Kane at the moment, with the forward staying at home before group training on Friday. Instead, Nuno’s roster was made up of a combination of senior players, new signings and young prospects. It seemed a bit disjointed on paper, and it soon became apparent that she would also be painfully disjointed in reality.
The only bright spark in the opening minutes came from new signing Bryan Gil, a 20-year-old winger who excelled in Spain last season. Tottenham have secured his services for the price of £ 20million and an Erik Lamela, and there are high hopes for the young Spaniard who wears his hair like a Beatles superfan.
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