Spurs’ made a blistering start, with Lucas Moura heading wide in the opening minute and then Son Heung-min seeing a goal-bound shot cleared. And after Nikolai Baden Frederiksen had dragged wide at the other end, the hosts raced into the lead, with Son converting on the rebound after Lucas had been thwarted by goalkeeper Markus Schubert.
Once in front, Tottenham were rampant. Son hit the woodwork, but Lucas soon doubled their advantage after running onto Harry Kane’s pass, and Jacob Rasmussen put into his own net to make it 3-0, all within the opening 30 minutes. Vitesse were far from dead and buried though, with Rasmussen making amends when he headed past Hugo Lloris two minutes later, then Matúš Bero expertly finished from inside the box to make it 3-2 at HT.
The visitors had the momentum after the break and were causing ‘Spurs’ all manner of problems. Following Cristian Romero’s 58th minute dismissal after his second yellow card and two strong saves from Lloris, Conte resorted to making a triple substitution that included the withdrawal of Moura as he tried to shore up the defence.
The changes seemed to work as Vitesse’s chances dried up. They soon lost their man advantage when Danilho Doekhi picked up his second booking by hauling down Kane and were then reduced to nine men as Schubert saw red for a handball outside his area. The three points mean Tottenham leapfrog their Dutch opponents, moving into second place in the group.
