2 hours ago
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It was the moment when the Tottenham home crowd could forget about their recent frustrations and lose themselves in the joy of it all; the glorious release. Their team had been too good for Copenhagen, who showed virtually nothing – certainly not in a positive sense.
Spurs were 2-0 up after Wilson Odobert’s goal but there was a glitch when Brennan Johnson, who had opened the scoring, was sent off in the 56th minute. The foul was more clumsy than sinister yet when the referee, Erik Lambrechts, was advised to go to the pitchside monitor, Johnson’s night was over.
Enter Micky Van de Ven. The centre-half has become synonymous with the swashbuckling and he was at it again when he seized possession on the edge of his own penalty box and started to motor. It was a blur as he left four Copenhagen players in his wake before entering the other area and blasting home. Game over.
Spurs sit sixth in the Premier League and they had entered this tie unbeaten in the Champions League. But there have been murmurs of discontent as they have laboured at their own stadium. They cut loose after Van de Ven’s show-stopper with João Palhinha, on as a substitute, adding a fourth and they could even shrug off a late penalty miss from another replacement, Richarlison.
Were the crowd unhappy that he took it rather than Dane Scarlett, another substitute, who had won the kick? It did not matter. It was a night to be enjoyed.
Spurs had been desperate for something on their own turf, the tie framed by the horror of the league defeat here against Chelsea on Saturday and everything that went with it – specifically the negativity of the fans. It had led to the unusual sight of Frank and Guglielmo Vicario, manager and senior player, appealing for better support at the pre-match press conference.
It was impossible to ignore the hundreds of empty seats in the top tiers at the outset nor the manner in which the Copenhagen supporters began the occasion – non-stop vocal backing with some en masse communal bouncing thrown in for good measure. “Is this a library?” they enquired.
The Spurs support would stir in the 19th minute when their team made the breakthrough. Frank had given Johnson a starting role on his favoured right-hand side in the absence of the injured Mohammed Kudus, who was part of a lengthy list of unavailable players; Frank was denied the services of 11 in total.
Johnson had blown an early half-chance when his touch was poor after he ran on to a dinked Wilson Odobert pass up the inside channel. But he got everything right when he darted in behind a couple of Copenhagen defenders and was found by a lovely curved ball from Xavi Simons.
Copenhagen had been caught on a quick transition after Gabriel Pereira misplaced a simple pass. Worse was to come as Johnson surged onto Simons’ through ball, with the goalkeeper, Dominik Kotarski, racing off his line – he was never the favourite to get there first. It was all about Johnson’s composure thereafter. He touched past Kotarski before finishing from a tight angle.
Copenhagen lag fourth in the Danish Superliga, six points behind the leaders, Aarhus. They arrived in London with a single point from their previous three Champions League ties. In short, all is not well with them and they were there for the taking during the first half. Their threat was minimal and there was too much looseness from them. They struggled sorely to build up against the Spurs press.
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Simons sniffed out spaces from the No 10 role; his turns were sharp, he probed with menace. He created two huge chances for Randal Kolo Muani towards the end of the first half, which the on-loan Paris Saint-Germain striker somehow fluffed.
First, after Simons had worked a slick give-and-go with Odobert, Muani dragged wide from close range. Did he need to take the touch to set himself? And then, following a perfect Simons cross, Muani headed high when unmarked six yards out.
Frank had Destiny Udogie pushing high from left-back and with the runs of Johnson a feature for Spurs, it felt as though Copenhagen had issues everywhere. They were most pronounced in goal and Spurs’s second had Kotarski’s prints all over it.
It was a high ball out of the Spurs defence and it looked as though it would be easy for Kotarski to clear. And yet he was so slow to get out to it, offering Kolo Muani hope. Kolo Muani kept on running and he was able to make the block, the ball spinning high towards the empty net. Whereupon Kolo Muani brought it down with a sumptuous touch before teeing up Odobert for the finish.
The red card for Johnson never threatened to derail Spurs. If anything, they were more menacing with ten men, counterattacking in waves, Copenhagen completely losing their way. Johnson’s challenge looked worse on the relays but he did catch Marcos López down the achilles with his studs. It led to Frank introducing Palhinha for Simons, who was most certainly not happy with his manager. It was the prompt, however, for Van de Ven to enjoy his moment and Spurs to turn the screw.
