Tottenham made it two wins from two in the Europa League after recording a 2-1 victory over Ferencvaros on Thursday evening. Fresh from last Sunday's 3-0 win against Manchester United at Old Trafford, Ange Postecoglou made seven changes to his Spurs team in order to give those on the periphery of the starting XI some much-needed pitch time.
Starting with Will Lankshear leading the line and Mikey Moore and Timo Werner either side of him in attack, the Spurs striker had a good chance inside the first ten minutes but he could only head the German's cross over from close range. Ferencvaros did give Spurs a few scares in the opening exchanges, including when Barnabas Varga headed home at the back post only for VAR to disallow it for offside.
Following that early worry, Spurs responded in the best way possible with Pape Matar Sarr making it back-to-back goals in Europe with a neat finish inside the six-yard box. The visitors went agonisingly close to doubling their lead on 32 minutes as Pedro Porro struck the post after some lovely footwork to fashion a yard of space.
Lankshear was also a matter of inches away from scoring his first Tottenham goal after his volley into the ground from Porro's cross just dropped over the crossbar prior to the hour mark. The second goal Spurs needed arrived in the final five minutes as substitute Brennan Johnson made it five goals in five games with a wonderful finish that went in off the post.
Varga did get his name on the scoresheet for Ferencvaros in the last minute but it proved to be a consolation goal as Spurs hung on for all three points. Here are five things we spotted in the game in Budapest:
Youthful Spurs
Tottenham fans finally got their wish on Thursday evening as Moore was handed his full debut by Postecoglou for the game in Hungary. Not only that, the head coach opted for Lankshear to start up front rather than going with Dominic Solanke, who received an England call-up on Thursday afternoon for October's internationals, playing through the middle.
That wasn't it in terms of the teenagers in the Spurs team to face Ferencvaros as Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall were once again selected after getting the nod at home to Qarabag one week ago. Gray this time lined up at centre-back with Micky van de Ven handed a rest and Radu Dragusin banned, while Bergvall got quite a bit more match time this time around after his 12th-minute exit in the Qarabag game due to the Romanian's red card.
It was the first time Tottenham had lined up with four teenagers in their team in a European match since facing Shakhtar Donetsk in the UEFA Cup back in February 2009. On that day, the four youngsters starting were Chris Gunter, Giovani dos Santos, Jonathan Obika and a certain Gareth Bale.
Kit question
Tottenham's brand new Nike third kit got another outing after previously donning the green jersey in the late Carabao Cup win at Coventry City last month. With Ferencvaros playing in green and white stripes, it meant that Tottenham's white home shirt was never an option for the game in Budapest.
Tottenham did request to play in their blue away kit against Ferencvaros (as reported by Tom Barclay), only for UEFA to rule it would be too much of a kit clash due to the green and white of the home team. Quite how it was deemed as too much of a clash remains to be seen.
So, in the end, it was the green of Tottenham coming up against the green and white of Ferencvaros. The amount of white on the Ferencvaros kit did mean that there wasn't too much of an issue across the 90 minutes despite both teams having green on their jerseys.
Moore impact
Tottenham fans have had to be incredibly patient when it has come to Moore making his full debut for the club. Impressing in his cameo appearances and also wowing for the team in pre-season, the attacker was finally handed his first start in the match against Ferencvaros.
Tottenham do have an incredible talent on their hands, with James Maddison waxing lyrical about him in his pre-match press conference, and Moore showed exactly why there has been so much clamour surrounding him with a really positive display in Europe. Fizzing a low cross across the face of goal early on with nobody on hand to convert, the 17-year-old embarked on a couple of impressive runs, most notably the one that lead to Sarr's strike in the 23rd minute.
Moore should have had an assist to his name in the second half after putting the ball on a plate for Werner following a swift Spurs attack. As was the case at Old Trafford four days ago, the German had plenty of time on the ball to make up his mind but this time he tried to go around the goalkeeper and forced himself too wide as he had the side-netting.
Positional change
Gray's versatility is proving to be incredibly helpful to Postecoglou at present when it comes to his Tottenham team. A midfielder by trade but having plenty of experience playing as a right-back due to his role in Daniel Farke's Leeds team, the Durham-born ace went on to play a number of games at centre-back for Tottenham in pre-season.
Always looking like a game that Gray and Davies would come into the team in place of Van de Ven and Destiny Udogie, their exact roles in the side due to their versatility was a talking point ahead of the game. Gray was the player who started at centre-back to begin with as the Spurs' long-serving defender operated in his natural left-back berth.
However, there was to be a change immediately after the break as Gray and Davies switched roles. The former made an immediate impact at left-back with a really strong run down the left flank past a couple of players before he was tackled on the edge of the Ferencvaros box.
Fresh for Brighton
Postecoglou was always going to rotate his team in Europe after a busy start to the 2024/25 campaign. Indicating after last weekend's game against Manchester United that a couple of the squad have played more than he would have liked in recent weeks, players such as Van de Ven, Rodrigo Bentancur, Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski, Johnson and Solanke dropped out of the starting XI.
Not only did it give those on the edge of the first XI a really good opportunity to catch Postecoglou's eye ahead of Sunday's game at Brighton, it also allowed the first-team regulars to have a rare breather prior to the trip to the south coast. Johnson, Kulusevski and Maddison were introduced off the bench just after the hour mark and Solanke entered the fray inside the final ten minutes of the contest.
All should still be relatively fresh and ready to go at Brighton this weekend, with Van de Ven and Bentancur certainly benefitting from a rest.
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