Spurs 4-0 FC Copenhagen | Thomas Frank’s verdict | OneFootball

Thomas Frank praised the team for a ‘fantastic response’ to our weekend loss against Chelsea with a 4-0 win against FC Copenhagen in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday evening.

It was a victory that had a bit of everything – early control and a 2-0 lead, followed by another superb response – this time to losing Brennan Johnson to a red card and going down to 10 men.

Instead of the visitors coming back into the game at that point, we took it away from them, thanks largely to one of the great goals from Micky van de Ven who, with echoes of Heung-Min Son against Burnley in 2019, box to box before finishing for 3-0. Joao Palhinha quickly made it 4-0 and it capped another European night to remember under the lights in N17.

Speaking to us pitchside afterwards, Thomas reflected: “First and foremost, I think the response from the players to a bad performance was fantastic. I think in life and football you get hits and you get setbacks and it's how you react to that.

“That bounce-back mentality from the players, I love that. We talked about it the last two days. They've been really determined to turn things around and show how much more they can. A couple of things - I think the structure was good today in the offensive play, in the phase two – 3-2-5 or 3-1-6, whatever we call it, a little bit of tactical talk there - but also the ability to play forward and to turn forward I think was good.

“This was a good step forward, I'm very happy with that, especially on the offensive play. I think it was a bit more from Wilson, a bit more from Xavi , a bit more for Kolo, a bit more for Brennan, if you take the front four. The relationship gelled a little bit better and there's even more to come. That was positive. I think the way the players stepped up after the red card, wow, that was very, very impressive.

“Before the game, if you said to me, 4-0, I'd say, ah! I've always believed we can do that, of course, but it's a good team. It's a much better team. They will not lose 4-0, I think, in other games in the Champions League. We had two tough away games where not everything was perfect, but we are getting there, you know, step by step, and I think that's important.”