Son Heung-min holds the key to Tottenham’s success against Barcelona
Tottenham Hotspur claimed all three points with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Leicester City in the Premier League on Saturday night, courtesy of goals from Heung-min Son and Dele Alli.
Mauricio Pochettino’s men were always going to be up against it as far as qualification to the knockout round of the Champions League was concerned, having been drawn alongside Barcelona, Inter Milan and PSV Eindhoven in Group B.
They arguably had the toughest draw amongst the Premier League sides but the Lilywhites deserve all the credit for keeping themselves in the hunt for a berth in the last 16.
Spurs will not have their fate entirely in their own hands when they lock horns with Barcelona at Camp Nou on Tuesday night as they might have to be content with a Europa League spot if they do not better Inter Milan’s result against Eindhoven.
Both Inter Milan and Spurs have a goal difference of -1 and the north Londoners will have to upset the odds to force a positive result from their final group game against the La Liga giants.
Christian Eriksen’s late winner against Inter Milan in the last game gave Spurs hope of completing a remarkable turnaround of fortunes to progress to the knockout stages. However, they will need to pull the rabbit out of the hat once again to beat the Spanish giants.
Spurs lost 4-2 against Barcelona in October at Wembley and it was Lionel Messi who proved to be the difference between the two sides, scoring a brace to demolish the home team. However, Spurs have strung together some scintillating performances of their own in recent weeks and they can be hopeful to avenging their previous defeat.
Tottenham produced arguably their best performance of the season a couple of weeks back to outclass Chelsea 3-1 and followed it up with another impressive 1-0 win over Inter Milan. Although they lost 4-2 to Arsenal in the north London derby, the Lilywhites got back their Premier League campaign back on track with back-to-back victories over Southampton and Leicester City.
Harry Kane has always been Tottenham’s go-to man for goals but Heung-min Son and Dele Alli have really come to the party in the last few games. Both Son and Alli were the standout figures for the Lilywhites in the 3-1 humbling of Chelsea and Son, in particular, has been in red-hot form in the last four games. The Korean came up with another delightful left-footed goal from the edge of the box against Leicester and assisted Alli for the second goal with an inch-perfect delivery from the left.
And he will once again be Tottenham’s best bet against Barcelona on Tuesday. Harry Kane remains the talisman up front but Son and Alli will need to excel in a supporting role to add substance to the attack.
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Mauricio Pochettino should go in with a 4-4-2 diamond in the midfield with Christian Eriksen in a deeper role alongside Moussa Sissoko and Alli playing behind Son and Kane up front. That should give them the best chance of breaking Barcelona down.
Son Heung-min has shown what he is capable of and Spurs can definitely bank on him to produce the goods to upset the odds against Barcelona on Tuesday.
