Postecoglou hails Spurs young stars
Ange Postecoglou said Tottenham's 3-0 win over Elfsborg was a victory "made in Tottenham" as youngsters Dane Scarlett, Damola Ajayi and Mikey Moore got on the scoresheet.
Tottenham secured safe passage to the last 16 of the Europa League with all three goals coming in the final 20 minutes at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
With Postecoglou battling a lengthy injury list, it was up to his young guns to break through a resolute visiting defence.
With Scarlett (20 years, 312 days old), Ajayi (19 years, 34 days) and Moore (17 years, 172 days) all netting their first goals for the club, Spurs became the first English team to have three goal-scorers under the age of 21 in a major European match since Arsenal versus Slavia Prague in 2007.
On that occasion, Theo Walcott, Nicklas Bendtner and Cesc Fabregas were on the scoresheet for the Gunners in the Champions League.
Meanwhile, Moore became the youngest English player to ever score in a major European competition, breaking Jimmy Greaves's record set while playing for the London XI in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1957 (17 years, 245 days old, versus Lausanne-Sport).
"It was made in Tottenham tonight," Postecolgou said. "I'm super pleased for the young boys, and we also shouldn't lose sight of the fact that we had a couple more teenagers out there too.
"I'm sure those three lads won't sleep tonight. We needed something tonight and the young lads stepped up.
"The objective was to try and win today and secure our spot in the top eight. I thought the boys were good, controlled the game and we were never really threatened.
"We had to bide our time as they sat deep, but they gave that up in the end to chase the game and the goals came."
Postecoglou made three half-time changes, withdrawing Micky van de Ven, Son Heung-min and Richarlison in a bid to protect some of his big names.
There was one concerning moment for Spurs, though, as one of those to enter the fray at the break, centre-back Radu Dragusin, was forced off less than 20 minutes later.
"We've got another big week coming up so the changes at half-time were about managing the load," Postecoglou said. "We still picked up an injury with Radu, which is not great.
"It is too early to say what it is; we will need to investigate further. But it was his knee, which is not good. The three other lads are good."
Reports suggested Tottenham is looking to complete a £50million swoop for Bayern Munich attacker Mathys Tel in the final days of the January transfer window, and Postecoglou says the club is working to bring in reinforcements.
"We have another game on Sunday," he said. "The club will be working hard behind the scenes to see if we can get something done."
