Welcome to hell. Tottenham took a squad of rotational players and youngsters to Istanbul (not Constantinople) to face Galatasaray in the Europa League group stage, knowing that with three wins in the previous three they had the rare opportunity to take some risks to take in what will likely be their toughest. group stage match. After all, Galatasaray features Victor Osimhen, one of the best strikers in world football, as well as former Tottenham centre-back Davinson Sanchez, significantly raising the profile and potential #banter level of this match.

And Galatasaray showed why they are currently the best scoring team in the league after Yunus Akgun volleyed past Fraser Forster to give the home side an early 1-0 lead. Tottenham Academy product and future star William “BIG WILLY LANKS” Lankshear reached Spurs level and scored his first senior goal for the club, but Osimhen proved why he is so highly rated by scoring a brace and taking Galatasaray to the dressing room with a 3-1 lead.

Tottenham brought in a couple of senior players at half-time, bringing in Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur for Son Heung-Min and Brennan Johnson, and later Pape Sarr and Dominic Solanke for a largely ineffective Lucas Bergvall and James Maddison. Solanke tapped in Pedro Porro’s low cross to cut the lead to 3-2 after Lankshear lost his head and received a second yellow before being sent off for a rash challenge. Spurs played bravely to a man but could not muster enough attack to put a third in the back of the net. The match ended with Galatasaray winning 3–2.

Here are my quick race notes.

Match Reactions:

• There are plenty of boiling cauldrons of home support in football, but away games at Galatasaray are definitely among the most intimidating. What a great experience for Tottenham’s youngsters to play in that environment!
• As for Yunus’ opening goal, you might be able to make the argument that Vicario makes the save while Forster doesn’t, but there was some serious venom on that shot, so I won’t make that argument. It was just a blast. Pick it out, move on.
• BIG WILLY LANKS’ goal was just a nice team game. The referee did well to find the advantage after Sonny was fouled during the build-up, and it was an excellent pass from Gray to Johnson to Lankshear for the tap-in. What a moment for him. (Too bad what happened next.) Archie’s pass to Johnson was excellent.
• You can’t, can’t, can’t give Victor Osimhen a chance like he scored (first) in the first half. A very poor defensive pass from Dragusin at the back got things going, and when Osimhen gets such an opportunity he rarely misses.
• Osimhen is one of the best strikers in world football and he is on loan to Galatasaray because… reasons? IDK, it’s inexplicable. Gala’s front three – Yilmaz, Icardi, Osimhen – are simply absurd, and Gala noticeably faded in the second half when two of them left the field.
• It’s not really fair to him as this wasn’t a good showcase for his abilities, but Lucas Bergvall looked way, WAY out of his depth here. He was probably Spurs’ worst player. A harsh assessment, but I’m starting to think he’s just not ready for football at this level. That’s fine! He’s young and will probably be very good! Maybe he isn’t yet.
• James Maddison also had a bit of a shock. Very wayward with his passing and perhaps showed why he hasn’t been favored in the recent starting XI of late.
• Dragusin another who did not cover himself with glory. Really struggled playing in the back and Osimhen had him on skates a number of times. I think he is a good defender. I’m not sure he’s a good defender for the US.
• A very immature broadcast from Will Lankshear. Big Willy Lanks had been fouled without a call a few seconds earlier, saw the red mist and went in with a wild challenge to get his second yellow. A very ‘Welcome to top football, boy’ moment for him: a goal and two yellow cards. He will learn from that.
• Even after Spurs were down to ten men, they had chances for a draw. Solanke’s strike into the goal was beautiful and Gala eventually had to take out both Osimhen and Mauro Icardi, but Spurs couldn’t muster enough late attack to take the point. That said, they played very well against a man when they got some first-team starters into the squad.
• Even with the loss, Spurs are still fifth in the EL standings (for now), with Galatasaray at the top. That’s why I say this is a freestyle; a loss doesn’t really hurt them here, they’ve given some of their fringe players some much-needed minutes and behaved quite well. Moreover, no one was injured. I’ll take it.