***4th November 2021**
Tottenham’s match against Vitesse, Conte’s first match as Tottenham’s new manager kicked off at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in London.
Tottenham was arranged in the 3-4-3 formation while their opponents were lined up in the 3-4-1-2 formation which was quite lucky for them as they weren’t used to their new formation and any formation that would overload the flanks might make the ga much harder than they expected.
The ga got off to a very exciting start when Tottenham found a counter attacking opportunity with Kane finding Moura who was making a run towards Vitesse’s goal.
Moura hit the ball first ti, but the ball was blocked by Markus Schubert, Vitesse’s goalkeeper, but he didn’t manage to hold onto the ball.
Lunging once more to slap the ball away before Moura could hit it on the rebound, he ended up sending the ball into the path of Son in the right side of the penalty box and after smoothly controlling the ball, Son sent it again at goal.
This ti Markus couldn’t react in ti and the ball flew into the bottom left corner of the goal.
Son took off down the sidelines, celebrating with the fans of the club who were happy that the new manager was making their team play more exciting football.
Their joy exploded again when just seven minutes later, Kane once again found Moura on a charge down into the opposition box.
Moura received the ball and right beside him, offering an option for an open goal was Son, but Moura chose to go it alone and this ti he converted from his one-on-one chance with the goalkeeper.
Unsure of whether Moura would square off the ball, Markus’s guard had been a bit too low and he could not react to Moura’s well placed shot in ti and the ball nestled at the back of the net.
Already two nil up, Tottenham didn’t show any signs of slowing down and on another counter opportunity, Lo Celso broke into the penalty box and tried to send a cross across to Harry Kane.
The ball evaded Markus Schubert and reached Kane, but Kane didn’t get a good enough touch on it to direct it goalward, however by so luck, Jacob Rasmussen was there, trying to block the shot, but the ball deflected off of him and rolled past the goal line.
Markus Shubert jumped on it and threw it away, but it was too late. The ball had already passed the goal line.
To say the Tottenham fans were over the moon would be an understatent.
The stadium wasn’t full, but everyone’s energy was through the roof and even the fans in their hos watching the ga felt the spreading joy.
The team was still playing sowhat defensively as defense was still the core of Antonio Conte’s style of play, but they were attacking as soon as the opportunities arose and the players didn’t look lost on the ball while hogging possession like squirrels in spring.
However, the opponents weren’t intending on going down without a fight.
They had already beat Tottenham earlier and initially believed they could do it again. The situation had changed, but they still believed they could get sothing from the ga.
Soon the chance arose from a corner just four minutes later and Rasmussen jumped clear of his marker, heading the ball to the far right corner to redeem himself.
Neither Lloris nor any other Tottenham player got near enough to the ball to stop it from going in and in the end, Vitesse got one back.
It was ga on.
Feeding off their first goal, Vitesse soon found themselves in Tottenham’s penalty box again and after breaking in from the right flank which was supposedly defended by Erson Royal, Yann Gboho found Matus Bero who curled the ball at the bottom right of the goal from inside the left side of the penalty box.
Lloris dived but couldn’t reach it and the ball once again nestled at the back of the net.
At this point, only neutrals and Vitesse fans were screaming excitedly, the Tottenham fans had beco less drunk on excitent and were quite sober.
Disappointed that a three goal lead had beco one, they still stood beside their side to win the ga, especially after being treated to beautiful counter attacking football at the beginning of the ga.
About 8 minutes later, the referee blew the whistle to end the first half and the two teams began heading off the field.
What was supposed to be a first half of the two sides probing each other had turned into a goal fest of five goals between them and now the two sides would be looking for more stability in the second half.
Vitesse would want to continue attacking and get an equalizer and maybe even a coback goal after that, but they had to make sure that they also didn’t concede so they would be more grounded.
Tottenham on the other hand only needed to hold onto this lead to win and while it may be more exciting to continue their attacking ga in the second half, it beca clear that the formation, new as it was still had clear weaknesses, especially since the players weren’t used to it yet.
Continuing to attack might lead to them conceding more goals and the Tottenham players didn’t want that. Even the fans didn’t want that.
So when the second half began and the Tottenham side switched to more defensive style football and only going forward when there was a counter attacking chance, the fans didn’t get care that their team seed to be mostly defending and just cheered for the players with all their might.
Things got a bit tricky in the 59th minute after Roro got a yellow card for an aggressive tackle. Unfortunately, he had already gotten a yellow card in the first half so this was his second yellow and it was followed up with a red that got him sent off.
It seed like the perfect opportunity for Vitesse to launch themselves forward and make use of their number advantage and they did so, getting more aggressive with the ball and doing all they could to steal possession whenever they needed to.
However sohow Tottenham stayed compact and it was Vitesse who began racking up yellow cards and by the ti it was the eightieth minute, they had received three yellow cards.
And on the 81st minute, they got another one, this ti striking a player who already had one yellow card.
He was also shown a red and suddenly the two teams were back on equal numbers, but then 4 minutes later, Markus Shubert received a red card for launching himself outside his penalty box and taking down Harry Kane who had gotten away and was bearing down on goal with a goal on his mind.
With that Vitesse were two man down and the tables turned once again.
From doing everything they could to score to doing everything they could to defend and last the remaining minutes because the Tottenham players began bearing down on them with righteous fury.
In the end, the ga ended with a 3-2 scoreline in favor of Tottenham and thus Antonio Conte began his career as Tottenham’s manager with a win.
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