Tottenham ride luck in Greece

Asteras Tripolas 1 Tottenham 2

Tottenham continued their march towards the Europa League knock-out stages with victory in Greece, yet their shocking second-half display against Asteras Tripolis will be of major concern to Mauricio Pochettino.

Andros Townsend's first-half penalty and a Harry Kane header minutes later proved the difference at the Theodoros Kolokotronis Stadium as Spurs secured back-to-back Group C wins.

Consolation goal

It was nowhere near as straightforward as it should have been, though, with Asteras deserving much more than Jeronimo Barrales’ late consolation goal and a 2-1 home defeat.

Few could have predicted such a flaky Spurs display after a dominant, if uninspiring, opening period in which Townsend opened the scoring from the spot.

The England winger provided the cross shortly afterwards for Kane to net his eighth in as many games.

However Asteras, playing in what manager Staikos Vergetis called the biggest match in their history, dominated the second half from the outset, with Tasos Tsokanis coming close seconds after the restart.

Asteras attacked with renewed vigour and Tottenham looked rattled, with Federico Fazio the latter receiving the second red card of his short Spurs career in stoppage time.

Barrales scored the resulting penalty but Asteras could not quite squeeze a leveller, as Spurs rode their luck.

ASTERAS TRIPOLI: Kosicky, Lluy, Sankare, Zisopoulos, Panteliadis, Usero, Munafo (Gianniotas 81), Mazza, Rolle, Tsokanis (Badibanga 60), Parra (Barrales 84). Subs not used: Theodoropoulos, Fernandez, Bakasetas, Kyriakopoulos. Booked: Sankare. TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR: Vorm, Dier, Fazio, Vertonghen, Davies, Stambouli, Dembele, Townsend, Lamela (Soldado 46), Eriksen (Mason 63), Kane (Paulinho 76). Subs not used: McGee, Rose, Chiriches, Chadli. Sent off: Fazio (89). Booked: Mason. Referee: Javier Estrada Fernandez (Spain).