Spurs, Swans on course in Europa
Print Edition
Young winger Andros Townsend gave England’s Aaron Lennon food for thought with a starring role in Tottenham Hotspur’s 5-0 win at Dinamo Tbilisi in the Europa League on Thursday.
In a startling display, Townsend scored the opener and then set up Brazil’s Paulinho to open his Spurs account before laying a third on a plate for Roberto Soldado.
Soldado bagged another while young left-back Danny Rose scored his first for Spurs since netting on his debut against Arsenal in April 2010.
Townsend’s pinpoint crossing was in itself telling for a player who may be looking to displace Lennon in the north Londoners’ first team this season, given the diminutive former Leeds United winger’s own failings when centring from out wide.
The result in this playoff first leg tie has all but rendered next week’s second leg at White Hart Lane meaningless and should see the English Premier League side safely into the Europa League group stages.
Townsend started off the rout when latching onto a ball cleared from the Spurs box following a Dinamo corner.
Kyle Naughton played the ball to Townsend, who raced 50 yards before firing low past goalkeeper George Loria from fully 25 yards on 11 minutes.
“I was delighted to score and that’s what I have to do when I get my chance, score goals and make assists,” said the 22-year-old Londoner.
“We were professional, saw the game out and scored a lot of goals. We played well.”
It was a great night for the Premier League as Swansea City trounced Romania’s Petrolul Ploiesti 5-1 in Wales.
Wayne Routledge started the ball rolling, scoring a pair of first-half goals either side of Spaniard Michu’s close-range toe poke.
And Ploiesti’s Brazilian goalkeeper Picanha scored an unfortunate own goal to compound matters in the second half, elbowing the ball over the line after he had initially saved Wilfried Bony’s near post flick.
Alejandro Pozuelo rounded off matters 20 minutes from time with a clever dink over Picanha after Michu’s through ball.
But the goal of the night came from Ploiesti’s Gheorge Grozav three minutes from time with a stunning overhead bicycle kick from the edge of the area that earned him a standing ovation from the Swansea crowd.
In other games, Jorge Molina and Cedric scored as Real Betis triumphed 2-1 at Czech team Jablonec, for whom Jan Kopic hit the net.
Ukraine giant Dynamo Kiev won 3-2 at Kazakhstan’s Aktobe Lento while Russian team Rubin Kazan won 2-0 at Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Molde.
Former European Cup winner Feyenoord lost 0-1 at Russia’s Kuban Krasnodar while France’s Saint-Etienne, a finalist in 1976, was beaten 3-4 at Esbjerg in Denmark.
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