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For LASK, Tottenham was too big at the start of the Europa League. The 0: 3 in England on Thursday showed LASK in an unusually toothless role, especially in the first half, and despite the improvement after switching sides: the “athletes” never had a real chance. Dominik Thalhammer, who referred to the great quality of Spurs, also confessed: “This is actually a Champions League team,” said the LASK manager.
>> Match report: Tottenham Hotspur vs. LASK
Thalhammer had demanded “courage” beforehand. That virtue that led to success in the brilliant last season or in EL’s 4-1 play-off victory at Sporting Lisbon. Alone, his players struggled in the empty 62,000 arena in North London when he returned home when Gareth Bale made his debut. “In terms of aggressiveness and courage, we didn’t find our way into the game the way we wanted to, we didn’t push the ball the way we wanted to,” Thalhammer said.
Failures make it difficult too
Also, there was a lot of bad luck with injuries. At the restart, a starting trio could no longer participate: James Holland (calf / replacement in minute 5), René Renner (39th / after a collision) and Andrés Andrade (rest / nausea). “If you want to think of a feeling against teams like this, everything has to be perfect on a day like this. But there were some circumstances that made life difficult for us,” he said, especially when it comes to forced changes.
With the three goals conceded by Lucas Moura (18th), the own goal by Andrades (27th) and Son Heung-min (84th), the defense was overwhelmed with the speed and precision of the actions, in the previous one it was not possible press like Use a weapon. Rather, star coach José Mourinho’s team used the ice cream rooms available, although stars like Son and Dele Alli only came off the bench or, like Harry Kane, didn’t at all. “We quickly understood that they could hurt us if they push us high and we are careless. But we did not make any mistakes in this area. In other areas, however, we have better players and we play with a lot of intensity, that’s what you have seen today”, resumed the Portuguese after the first competitive victory of the current season.
Thalhammer, whose team will face Ludogorez Rasgrad at home next Thursday, who lost 2-1 to Royal Antwerp early on, could at least see an improvement in his team’s performance in the second half. “It was a brave performance on our part,” commented offensive man Andreas Gruber. Or in the words of the Dutch substitute Lukas Grgic: “We objected.” At the beginning of the second half, Gruber gave way to rookie Johannes Eggestein on loan from Werder Bremen, who had previously forced goalkeeper Joe Hart to make a real parade with what was probably the best LASK opportunity of the match (45th). “He’s a very good goalkeeper, he could have been in another one,” Gruber said.
The red-and-white-red night of the Europa League in images
Thalhammer convinced of the team
In any case, Thalhammer was clear that LASK’s playful approach was basically the right one against such a high-ranking opponent. “I think our style works, but it’s just a superior team,” Thalhammer said. “Of course you could say that he defends deeply, but this opponent will always find solutions if he can’t push the ball.”
Goalkeeper Alexander Schlager, who was also able to intervene successfully several times, described the game not only as “a great experience”. “I think we can take away that if we play our game with a great willingness to take risks, if we are really ‘on fire’, we can create scoring chances against all opponents,” said the Salzburg native. And that is exactly what will be necessary after the “bonus game” begins. Thalhammer: “I think the teams we can score against will come.”
What
