Harry Kane scored a hat-trick (his 15th Spurs hat-trick) and also provided an assist as Tottenham qualified for this season’s Europa League group stage with a 7-2 thumping of Israeli side Maccabi Haifa.
It was Tottenham’s third game in five days but Jose Mourinho’s men showed no signs of fatigue as they put the Israeli side to the sword, with a Giovani Lo Celso brace, Lucas Moura’s header, and a Dele Alli penalty adding to the Spurs captain’s tally on the night.
Maccabi Haifa had levelled the score at 1-1 through a fine Tjaronn Chery strike but never really posed much threat. Nikita Rukavytsya struck a second-half penalty for the Israeli side’s second of the night.
There was some De Ja Vu feeling about the final scoreline, by the way, as it came exactly one year to the day that Bayern Munich beat Tottenham by the same scoreline, 7-2, in last season’s Champions League.
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Jose Mourinho and his boys can now rest ahead of Sunday’s Premier League trip to Manchester United, which concludes a very hectic schedule, while also waiting to see who they are paired with as the Europa League draw gets underway on Friday.
The Spurs’ boss lauded his squad’s effort with Eric Dier, Steven Bergwijn, and Toby Alderweireld all playing two of Spurs’ three games in five days.
“What Eric Dier, Bergwijn, and Toby did is not human,” he says. “It’s proven, scientifically proven, every sports scientist person knows that what they did shouldn’t be done.
“To play 180 minutes in three days shouldn’t be allowed. These three guys did it. I know that some others played also until their limit, but we managed because we have a good squad and we have a squad with different options.
“We managed to share players in these matches, and we managed to go through two knockout competitions in the Carabao and Europa League, but we could have gone out. Job done. I am really happy about the job done.”
The Europa League draw for the 2020/21 season takes place on Friday, with Arsenal, Leicester, Tottenham, Celtic and Rangers set to learn their fate.
The draw takes place at 12pm on Friday, October 2 at the House of European Football in Nyon, Switzerland.
Other Thursday Europa League qualifying results
- CFR Cluj-Napoca 3-1 KuPS Kuopio
- Ararat-Armenia 1-2 Crvena Zvezda
- Charleroi 1-2 Lech Poznan
- Dinamo Zagreb 3-1 FC Flora Tallinn
- Malmo FF 1-3 Granada
- Rosenborg 0-2 PSV Eindhoven
- Slovan Liberec 1-0 Apoel Nicosia
- Hapoel Beer-Sheva 1-0 FC Viktoria Plzen
- Dinamo Brest 0-2 Ludogorets
- FC Copenhagen 0-1 Rijeka
- FK Sarajevo 0-1 Celtic
- Legia Warsaw 0-3 Qarabag FK
- Standard Liege 3-1 MOL Vidi FC
- BSC Young Boys Bern 3-0 KF Tirana
- Basel 1-3 CSKA Sofia
- Dundalk 3-1 KI Klaksvík
- AEK Athens 2-1 Wolfsburg
- Rangers 2-1 Galatasaray
- Rio Ave 2-2 AC Milan (AC Milan win 9-8 on penalties)
- Sporting Lisbon 1-4 Linz ASK
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