Spurs cruise to dominant victory over Red Star Belgrade to end woes
Tottenham Hotspur's Son Heung-min (no.7) celebrates scoring his side's second goal of the game with Harry Kane and Erik Lamela during the UEFA Champions League Group B match at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London. - Credit: PA Wire/PA Images
Champions League: Tottenham Hotspur 5 Red Star Belgrade 0
Tottenham Hotspur put their recent woes behind them as they cruised to a dominant 5-0 victory over Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League group stages.
Braces from Harry Kane and Heung Min-Son as well as a goal from Argentine Erik Lamela ended their three game winless run at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and to move them up to second in their group.
Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino made four changes to the starting line-up that drew 1-1 with Watford on Saturday as Ben Davies, Tanguy Ndombele, Erik Lamela and Heung Min-Son came in.
Harry Winks and Lucas Moura dropped to the bench while Toby Alderweireld and Danny Rose were dropped from the match day squad - with Giovanni Lo Celso being named on the bench following a long injury lay-off.
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Early in the match Heung Min-Son played striker Harry Kane in down the left with the latter looking to cut in on his marker but going down with ease.
Moments later the duo linked up once again, this time with the South Korean International getting a shot after, but he mishit the ball and it was comfortably held by goalkeeper Milan Borjan.
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In the ninth minute the hosts broke the deadlock as Serge Aurier won a corner which Erik Lamela whipped into the box for Kane to glance into the far corner from the near post.
Spurs doubled their lead seven minutes later as Son met a Lamela cross at the back post and lifted it into the roof of the net to make it 2-0.
They continued to pile the pressure on and this time the chance came from midfielder Ndombele as he drilled a shot on target after cutting in on the edge of the box in the 22nd minute but Borjan was equal to it.
The Canadian International shot-stopper then was forced to tip a Lamela effort over the bar as left-back Ben Davies cut back and found the attacker inside the box.
Belgrade's right-back Marko Gobeljic raced forward to try his luck but had his effort blocked by Davies.
His shot bounced back to him but his second shot was deflected off one of his own team-mates in the 36th minute.
A minute before half-time Ndombele nabbed the ball off former Chelsea man Marko Marin and raced up the pitch.
The Frenchman had Kane to his right and Son to his left, but he played the latter in, who slotted home for his second of the match to make it 3-0.
Five minutes into the second-half Kane picked out Lamela but the Argentine sent it over the crossbar.
The England International then delivered a brilliant cross into Son, who then tried to play it back, instead of opting to strike home for his hat-trick.
In the 57th minute the creator turned goalscorer as Lamela fired home on the spin after being picked out by right-back Serge Aurier to make it 4-0.
Spurs goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga denied Garcia who chipped an effort on target after a through ball from Marin in the 66th minute.
Kane then grabbed his second of the match in the 72nd minute as he slotted the ball into the bottom right corner after originally miscontrolling the ball on his run into the box to make it 5-0.
The hosts then held onto the ball well to kill off the match and bag themselves a clean sheet on top of a dominant display.
Tottenham Hotspur: Gazzaniga, Aurier, Sanchez, Vertonghen (Foyth 73), Davies, Ndombele, Sissoko, Lamela, Alli (Lo Celso 79), Son (Dier 68), Kane.
Unused subs: Austin, Winks, Eriksen, Moura.
Red Star Belgrade: Borjan, Gobeljic, Degenek, Milunovic, Rodic, Canas (Petrovic 62), Vulic, Van la Parra (Vukanovic 82), Marin, Garcia, Tomane (Pavkov 62).
Unused subs: Popovic, Ivanic, Babic, Jander.