If Ange Postecoglou was hoping that things might be different for Tottenham in the Europa League, then he was sadly mistaken. An abject display in which his side fell behind to an early own goal from the unfortunate Lucas Bergvall and then failed to lay a glove on AZ Alkmaar means the Australian’s chances of maintaining the proud record of winning a trophy in his second season at every club he has managed now rest on next week’s second leg.
The home side – who are known as the cheese heads – could have been out of sight after repeatedly finding holes in the Spurs defence had it not been for two excellent saves from Guglielmo Vicario, including one to deny the Tottenham academy graduate Troy Parrott in the first half. Even though Spurs have not even reached the quarter-finals of this competition in five attempts since 2013, Postecoglou said beforehand that his players sensed an opportunity to win it now that some of them are back from injury. But the sight of Tottenham’s record signing, Dominic Solanke, limping off late with a suspected back problem on his return from seven weeks out with a knee injury potentially made it an even more disastrous evening for the head coach.
