Spurs christen new stadium with the Eagles
Written By: Robert Halter
Tottenham Hotspur played their first competitive match at the new billion pound White Hart Lane stadium on Wednesday, 3rd of April 2019 in front of an attendance of 59,215 against Crystal Palace, with Spurs unbeaten in their last seven league meetings with the Eagles, who were winless in six away games with the Lilywhites, failing to score in the previous five away matches. In the second minute from a Kieran Trippier delivery, a header by Dele Alli was clasped upon from Vincente Guaita. But within a minute, from a through ball by Eagles captain, Luka Milivojevic, a strike by Jeffrey Schlupp, was blazed over. In the tenth minute, Danny Rose combined with Heung-Min Son, before a daisy cutter by Christian Eriksen, drifted past the left post. In the seventeenth minute, Trippier found Eriksen, whose snap shot was smothered by Guaita, who got caught in the face by Son after making the save. On nineteen minutes from a Trippier assist, Harry Kane struck a lob shot high over the crossbar. Two minutes later, Rose started the move, before a chip by Alli, deceived Guaita and also Eriksen at the left post. In the twenty fourth minute, after collecting the ball from Rose, a strike by Eriksen rose over the crossbar. After Milivojevic caught Alli, a free kick by Kane deflected off Michy Batshuayi in the Palace wall, and over to the left. In the thirty fifth minute, from Eriksen’s cross, the ball flopped off Kane’s head into Guaita. Within two minutes, through Eriksen’s incisive pass, a low first time strike by Son, deflected behind off Guaita’s lower body. Then after Alli’s over the top ball, it was brought down on the chest from Eriksen, before Martin Kelly cleared the danger. The Eagles responded, when from Batshuayi’s pass, Patrick van Aanholt, drove the ball wide of the far right post. On forty four minutes from Eriksen’s cross, the ball deflected out of play off James Tomkins from a header by Toby Alderweireld, and then from a Rose corner, Kane headed the ball narrowly wide of the right target area. Three minutes into the second half, from Kane’s cross field pass, Son struck the ball high over the top. But the Lilywhites were on red alert, when through a Kelly pass, the ball was curled from Batshuayi, narrowly past the far right post, in the fifty first minute. However in the fifty fifth minute, from Eriksen’s pass, Son wrote his name in Tottenham folklore, by scoring the first competitive goal in the new stadium, with a left footed strike deflecting off Milivojevic from the centre of the box into the bottom right corner, to punish Milivojevic losing possession to Eriksen. In the sixty sixth minute from an Alli assist, Kane blazed a strike over the target. Rose was soon taken off for Harry Winks. In the seventy fourth minute, from a low delivery by Eriksen, the ball was driven in from Son into Guaita. The Eagles later replaced Cheikhou Kouyate with Andros Townsend. Although Spurs doubled their advantage in the eightieth minute, after Kane fell over James McArthur, before Eriksen tumbled the ball into the centre of the net as the ball deflected in off van Aanholt. Palace then brought on Christian Benteke for Batshuayi while the Lilywhites switched Alli with Lucas Moura. In the eighty third minute, Ben Davies had a long range blast over the top. In the proceeding two minutes, from Benteke’s ball through, a curling strike from van Aanholt was leapt upon by Hugo Lloris, as he sprung to divert the ball. The Eagles pressed again when McArthur’s delivery was headed agonisingly wide by Benteke, Then Wilfired Zaha dazzled in the box before his strike was kept out by the outstretched feet of Lloris. The Lilywhites responded in the eighty ninth minute, when Son’s cross was headed by Jan Vertonghen into Guaita. In stoppage time Victor Wanyama took over from Son. In the final piece of action from Eriksen’s long ball forward, Moura’s strike spun off Guaita, before Kane head the ball into the Eagles shot stopper, to cap a 2-0 winning score for Tottenham Hotspur over Crystal Palace.