Europa could be the saviour of Tottenham’s season…

It felt like José Mourinho was a man in his element as Tottenham Hotspur cruised to victory against Wolfsberger in the Europa League last 32 first leg. The 4-1 win was a fair reflection on a match Spurs dominated for large periods, and it will have pleased the Portuguese manager greatly to see his team firing on all cylinders once again after a somewhat sticky spell in the Premier League.

At one point, Tottenham were looking like title contenders for the Premier League, but they have lost their way over the last couple of months and will now have to battle it out for the Champions League spots. Of course, one other potential route of access to the Champions League would be by winning the Europa League, and Mourinho may well fancy his team’s chances of going all the way in Europe’s secondary club competition. The bookies agree, with Spurs listed as one of the favourites in the UEFA Europa League odds.

On the basis of last Thursday’s performance, there is plenty for Tottenham fans to be excited. It was especially satisfying to see Gareth Bale amongst the scorers with a trademark left-footed curling strike. Tottenham took the lead through Heung-Min Son’s header, and after Bale and Lucas Moura had made it 3-0 before half-time, it looked like Spurs’ passage to the last 16 was all but secured.

What Mourinho won’t have liked is the fact that his side lost concentration for a period in the second half. A clumsy penalty conceded by Moussa Sissoko granted Wolfsberger a lifeline with Michael Liendl duly converting, and if Christopher Wernitznig’s shot, which thundered the crossbar, had gone in, things might have got nervy for Spurs.

But they recovered their dominance, and Carlos Vinícius added the icing to their cake to secure the win and leave an incredibly tough task for their Austrian opponents in the second leg.

While Spurs showed a great deal of control in the win, it must be kept in mind that there will be more difficult tests to come as the tournament progresses, assuming they get the job done against Wolfsberger in the second leg. There are some heavy hitters in the Europa League knockout stages this year, and Tottenham will have their work cut out if they want to experience European glory.

Spurs haven’t got beyond the quarter-finals of the Europa League/UEFA Cup since the 1973-74 season, and that’s something Mourinho will be hoping to correct. Of course, they reached the Champions League final in 2019, so it’s not like this Spurs team has no experience of the latter stages of a European competition, but as far as the second-tier tournament goes, they have often fallen short.

In this incredibly intense campaign, there is a lot of pressure on Tottenham to compete on as many fronts as possible. They have already made the final of the League Cup, where they will take on Manchester City in April, and after losing out to Everton in a 5-4 FA Cup thriller, they’ll want to ensure they go far in the Europa League too.

Fortunately, they have a manager who knows what it takes to win these big European titles. Mourinho is a two-time Champions League winner, and also won the Europa League with Manchester United in 2017. Spurs have been hugely successful over the past several seasons, but they haven’t been able to back it up with silverware. Mourinho was brought in to do just that – now is the time to deliver.