Lucky Lucas

Okay, it was not entirely luck on Lucas Bergvall's part, who more than earned his Player of the Match award. But the sole goal of the game did have an element of luck to it, which Spurs will absolutely take.

In this issue: Villarreal recap

It was a slow news week in Tottenham, so just the Champions League recap for this issue!

CL MD1 | Tottenham 1 - 0 Villarreal

Júnior (OG) 4'

I'll be honest, when I looked at the lineup for Villarreal, I was extremely underwhelmed (no offense to their captain and former Spurs player, Juan Foyth), so I expected we would be able to handle them. I did not expect there to be only one Spurs goal, nor for it to come down to a Villarreal own goal. I would like to be generous to poor Luis Júnior and say that it was an own goal created by undeniable pressure on Spurs' part, but nope, it was definitely his mistake.

Technically, it was Lucas Bergvall who created the own goal moment, sending a dangerous cross into the box that Júnior failed to capture and let dribble behind him into the net. I would like to think that the onrushing Richarlison would have tapped in the cross regardless. Either way, Bergvall did enough to earn the Player of the Match award in a game that was otherwise lacking in quality. This was following his Premier League Player of the Matchweek award, announced ahead of the Champions League game.

The only other big talking point of the game was the officiating. At no point in the first half did the center referee have control of the game, letting it devolve into a physical, stop-start battle. There were seven yellow cards given out across the two teams by the final whistle, as well as a yellow for Villarreal manager Marcelino Garcia. As a result, neither time was able to develop any sort of attacking rhythm.

I must admit that the halftime show praise for Mason Greenwood and the second-half introduction of Thomas Partey for Villarreal made it very difficult for me to enjoy the spectacle of the Champions League for the rest of the game. I couldn't tell you anything that happened after that point because I was tuned out. So I hope the powers-that-be at UEFA are proud of themselves for tainting their marquee product for many fans by allowing abusers to remain in the sport.

On that discouraging note, let's just agree to forget the majority of this game and keep the own goal in our hearts for leading to Thomas Frank's first three points in the Champions League.

Notable & quotable:

• Spurs are unbeaten in the last 21 European matches at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

• Although Pape Sarr was the only Spurs player to get a shot on target, we didn't allow a single shot on target for Villarreal on the way to the clean sheet.

• Randal Kolo Muani came on as a substitute to make his club debut, also earning Spurs Legacy Number 899.

• Lucas Bergvall reflected on what the win and his PotM performance meant to him:

It’s been a dream since I was a young kid to play in the Champions League. To do that in front of our supporters here at home, and a win, it couldn’t be better.

He also noted that he had to scale down his goal celebration when he realized it was actually an own goal:

I tried to do a celebration, but then I thought, "It’s not really my goal, so I just started to jog instead." Maybe it was a half-celebration!

• Thomas Frank added his two cents on the team performance:

The effort, the structure, the principles are very good most of the time. The togetherness, that grind in a game when everything’s not free flowing, it’s so important if you want to win enough games over the season.

Up next:

September 19 | Spurs Women vs Manchester City
Team news — Matilda Vinberg, Martha Thomas, and Ashleigh Neville back in training; Molly Bartrip, Luana Bühler, and Ella Morris remain out of selection

September 20 | Spurs Men @ Brighton & Hove Albion
Team news — not available at time of writing

(Programming note: I still don't plan to do lengthy match previews this season unless it's a really special occasion (cross your fingers for a final at some point...) because a lot of times it's difficult and takes a lot of time to track down opposition injury updates and put together a picture of how their season has been going. I'm trying to keep this newsletter a little more laidback this year, but I figured it would be helpful to at least provide a look at the upcoming fixtures and any relevant team news from Spurs. There will be some issues, like this one, where one team is playing on Friday and the other's injury update hasn't been released yet. Midweek issues are often tricky that way.

It should be another interesting weekend for the senior teams as we continue to learn more about the new managers and signings.

COYS

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