‘Wonderful’ Tottenham player leaves Dutch press blown away as ‘the evening belonged’ to him

‘Wonderful’ Tottenham player leaves Dutch press blown away as ‘the evening belonged’ to him

It was a tale of two footballers at very different ends of the age spectrum as Tottenham Hotspur saw off AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League on Thursday night.

 

Two players with nearly 20 years between them. One closing on on 500 career appearances, and the other featuring for just the seventh time on the senior stage.

But while Fraser Forster and Mikey Moore may be at completely opposite stages of their footballing journey – the 17-year-old wonderkid has barely crossed Farmer Maggot’s Farm, in Lord of the Rings terms – Tottenham’s narrow victory over AZ Alkmaar in North London was proof that age really is just a number.

 

Forster, Spurs’ 36-year-old back-up goalkeeper, made a first outing since the EFL Cup victory over Coventry City five weeks earlier.

 

And, in place of the rested Guglielmo Vicario, Forster rolled back the years as he sprang to his right to prevent Alexandre Penetra giving the Eredivisie outfit a shock lead early on.

The former Celtic and Southampton stopper would then outwit Mayckel Lahdo one-v-one in the second-half, denying the AZ substitute to ensure that Richarlison’s penalty in the 53rd minute would be the only goal of a tightly-contested encounter.

Tottenham goalkeeper Fraser Forster frustrates AZ Alkmaar

“I think we had enough moments to strike. We didn’t. Then, you leave something on the table,” sighs a disappointed AZ coach Maarten Martens, frustrated by his side’s inability to find a way past a goalkeeper approaching his fourth decade on planet earth.

 

“We just didn’t succeed. You just have to keep that freshness to score. That’s the key. We just haven’t succeeded yet.

We’ve really come close a few times. Those are things that have to be a few per cent better. We had two, three, four really big chances. We didn’t finish them and, at the back, we conceded a penalty.

 

“A shame.”

 

Dutch publication De Stentor described the save which kept Pinetra out as nothing short of ‘beautiful’.

 

Volkskrant, meanwhile, labelled Forster the Man of the Match. His ‘fine’ reactions as yet undimmed by the sands of time.