[엑스포츠뉴스 김희웅 인턴기자] Director Jose Mourinho shot the critics.
Tottenham Hotspur defeated Crystal Palace 4-1 in the 27th round of the English Premier League (EPL) in the 2020/21 season held at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on the 8th (Korean time). Tottenham (45 points) jumped to 6th place and narrowed the gap from 4th place Chelsea (47 points).
On this day, Tottenham set up Son Heung-min, Harry Kane, and Gareth Bale at the forefront. They flew. Tottenham took the lead with Bale’s lead goal in the 25th minute of the first half.
It was the veil that broke the balance in the second half of the 4th minute, when he was tightly confronted with 1-1. Bale pushed Kane’s header pass to his forehead, giving the team a second lead. Three minutes later, Kane’s fantastic medium-range gun shook the Palace goal, and in the 31st minute of the second half, Kane pushed Son Heung-min’s pass to finish the game.
After scoring four goals and winning, Tottenham scored 100 points this season. He scored 46 goals in the EPL, 35 goals in the European Football Federation (UEFA) Europa League (UEL), 13 goals in the FA Cup, and 6 goals in the League Cup. In the top five leagues in Europe, he scored 100 goals for the second time after Bayern Munich (106 goals).
After the game, coach Mourinho said in an interview with UK Sky Sports, “If the statistics I received are correct, 100 goals a season is not bad for a very defensive team and a negative team.” It seemed to be insignificant, but it was a remark that sniped at those who criticized him.
From before, Mourinho has focused on defense. The main tactic is to build a solid defensive line and score goals through quick counterattacks. At the beginning of the season, we had fun running undefeated in 11 EPL games (7 wins and 4 draws), but problems emerged afterwards.
Even if I came out defensively, there were many cases where the strong team scored a goal and knelt, and the weak team suffered a hard time in the ground-breaking situation. There were many games where Son Heung-min and Harry Kane lost helplessly when they couldn’t play an active part. Fans’ voices such as’only defending’ and’old-fashioned tactics’ grew. Accordingly, coach Mourinho shot those who criticized him while referring to the number of ‘100 goals’.
Meanwhile, Tottenham cleaned up his sluggishness. Recently, he won four games in the official game. Director Mourinho said, “It was a good week. “There’s nothing better than 9 points in 3 games, a big game at UEL and 9 points in a game against Arsenal.”
Tottenham will play the first leg of the UEL Round of 16 against Dynamo Zagreb (Croatia) at 5 am on the 12th.
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