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To paraphrase Mohammed Abu Fani, the Maccabi Haifa midfielder, he was going to own Harry Kane. Everyone has already seen the social media video and the only thing I can say is that it didn’t really work out that way.
It was never going to be like this. Tottenham are in a different league than their Israeli opponents on almost every level and they did an easy job of smoothing out the safe passage to the Europa League group stage. It is not exactly the promised land after the club began to get used to the Champions League, but it will be for this season.
After everything the Spurs had done at the end of the previous season and how the competition’s qualifying rounds have led to such match congestion at the start of this one, it felt like something to celebrate, even if the final whistle brought little more than silence.
Kane scored a hat-trick and José Mourinho even felt emboldened to replace him with 15 minutes remaining and the score 6-2. Giovani Lo Celso scored two, Lucas Moura got another and there was time at the end for Dele Alli, as a substitute at halftime, to summon a glorious spin followed by signature nutmeg to draw a Bogdan Planic penalty. There he got up to write it down.
Mourinho had made nine lineup changes for the Spurs’ seventh game in 18 days this season. The number that will mean the most to him and the club is the extra millions that a Europa League career will bring. Now they can look forward to a day off, perhaps, and then the Premier League visit to Manchester United on Sunday. “Work done, group stage, almost at the end of an incredible period,” Mourinho said.
Kane found the breakthrough after just 92 seconds past Ben Davies’s center and it was clear from the first race that the Spurs beat Maccabi in the final third, that the visitors were going to have a hard time keeping them at bay.
That said, Maccabi was determined to ask questions at the other end and Tjaronn Chery’s 1-1 draw was a blast. The former QPR player got the ball violently deflected from outside the box and drifted away from Joe Hart and into the top corner. It was not an isolated effort from the first half. Chery twice extended Hart, Toby Alderweireld had to stretch in a saving challenge and the ubiquitous Abu Fani swerved from the angle.
However, the Spurs found it so easy to play through Maccabi that they could afford to be relaxed about what their opponents were doing with the ball. Mourinho’s team had four at halftime and it could have been more. Lo Celso shot into the side net, Steven Bergwijn worked the goalkeeper and Kane had three moments in which a shot missed.
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Some of Maccabi’s concessions were gruesome, including the second and fourth goals. Lucas was allowed to lunge into a Bergwijn corner and head home, while Lo Celso’s second followed a mistake by Planic. Kane released the Argentine whose cut shot was of the first order. Lo Celso’s first came after Lucas’s header was blocked and Davies returned the ball to him.
It wouldn’t be football these days without a couple of dubious penalties for handball and Maccabi scored the first early in the second half when Dolev Haziza threw the ball at Matt Doherty from about a meter away. The Spurs full back had his arms at his sides but it didn’t matter. Nikita Rukavytsya beat Hart from the point. Kane’s 5-2 kick concession was also tough, although Ernest Mabouka was a bit further away when Davies finished off a cross.
Moments earlier, Abu Fani had forced Hart to make another save and there were more opportunities at both ends, mainly for the Spurs. Kane’s third was a carefree little chip after Berwijn’s good work and Mourinho was able to end the evening happily by posing with the Maccabi players for selfies.
