Tottenham Hotspur’s Erik Lamela scored a stunning “rabona” goal to light up Thursday’s Europa League ties, wrapping his left boot round the back of his right leg 20 metres out and blasting the ball into the top corner.
That goal, a second Lamela volley and a Harry Kane hat-trick helped secure a 5-1 victory over Greek side Asteras Tripolis but the result seemed almost insignificant in comparison to the sheer technical brilliance of the Argentine’s moment of magic.
Elsewhere, the goals were liberally spread among the games in Europe’s second-tier competition with Borussia Moenchengladbach hitting five while Besiktas, VfL Wolfsburg, Salzburg and Villarreal all netted four times.
Rijeka’s Andrej Kramaric underlined his status as one of the hottest prospects in European soccer with a hat-trick while trouble flared in eastern Europe again and Napoli lost 2-0 to Young Boys.
I have seen Erik do that in training – he has that in his locker
Nothing, though, came close to matching Lamela’s 30th-minute goal for wow factor, a rare glimpse of the talent that Tottenham fans had heard about but not seen much of since his club record 30 million pounds (HK$373 million) move from AS Roma last year.