Tottenham Vs Vitesse: Conte's Debut Coaches Spurs With Victory And Rain Of Red Cards

JAKARTA - Antonio Conte marked his debut to coach Tottenham Hotspur with a 3-2 victory over Vitesse Arnhem in the Group G Conference League match on Thursday local time. However, the match which took place at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London was also marked by three red cards.

Launching Antara, five goals rained down in the first half, then the second half was marked by three red cards, one for Tottenham players and the other two for the visitors.

Antonio Conte kicks his Spurs career off with a ! pic.twitter.com/JVp3BbpBQM

— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) November 4, 2021

The match was only 14 minutes old when Conte's 3-4-3 scheme for Tottenham led to Son Heung-min's superior goal.

The goal started with Lucas Moura's action in the final third of Tottenham's attack and ended it with a shot that was denied by goalkeeper Markus Schubert, but the ball was thrown up by Son who slotted in to give Tottenham the lead.

Son came close to scoring his second in the 21st minute but Son's powerful shot after he crossed Danilho Doekhi ended up hitting the post.

A minute later Tottenham had doubled their lead after Harry Kane found a pass that was finished by Lucas Moura to beat Schubert.

Tottenham's momentum continued and in the 28th minute their lead was added again after Kane capitalized on a fray in front of the visitors' goal and his effort was cleared by Jacob Rasmussen, but the Vitesse defender ended up scoring an own goal.

Vitesse tried to get up but a dangerous opportunity created by Sondre Tronstad's accurate long-range shot could still be brilliantly denied by goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.

Vitesse scored a corner from the attack as Rasmussen beat Eric Dier to head home Maximilian Wittek in the 32nd minute.

Seven minutes later, Vitesse cut the gap again after Matus Bero finished off Yann Gboho's cross with a powerful strike that hit both Dier and Lloris unstoppable efforts.

Vitesse came close to equalizing in the 53rd minute but Lloris saved the Tottenham goal from Lois Openda's dangerous shot.

Six minutes later, Vitesse had an advantage when Cristian Romero received a second yellow card for bringing down Openda in a wild ball contest.

Vitesse tried to take advantage of the lopsided situation, but once again Lloris thwarted their attempt to equalize with Riechedly Bazoer's curling shot in the 69th minute.

Unfortunately Vitesse then also had to resume the game with ten men after Doekhi brought down Kane in the middle of the field and received a second yellow card in the 80th minute.

Four minutes later, Vitesse had to lose another player after Schubert came out of the net to close down Emerson Royal's space on the Tottenham counter-attack.

Emerson insisted the ball hit Schubert's arm outside the Vitesse box and referee Marco Di Bello agreed to a red card, although replays showed the ball hit the goalkeeper's shoulder.

The situation of ten against nine gave Tottenham the flexibility to maintain their 3-2 advantage until the final whistle.

The win lifted Tottenham to second in the standings with seven points, displacing Vitesse who dropped to third place with six points.

The top of the standings is maintained by Rennes who have 10 points after a narrow 1-0 win over Mura in another match at Roazhon Park.

The fifth Group G match will be played on November 25 when Tottenham travel to Slovenia against Mura and Rennes host Vitesse in France.