Vincent Janssen Wanted to Score Tottenham's Penalty
Vincent Janssen earned his second start for Tottenham and scored his first goal for Spurs.
Vincent Janssen had multiple chances to score his first Tottenham goal against Gillingham in the League Cup, but near misses and some saves denied the Dutchman from opening his account.
Lo and behold, an opportunity presented itself after Kieran Trippier was fouled inside the penalty box. With Spurs dominating the match up to that point, leading 2-0, another goal would effectively kill the game off.
Janssen who was seeking that elusive first goal was quick to jump on the chance to nail a 12-yard spot-kick. The 22-year-old didn’t deny it at all, talking about how he wanted to take the penalty as soon as the referee called the foul.
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“True!” Vincent Janssen said (via Spurs’ official site).
“I wanted to take it. I had a conversation with Chris [Eriksen] and he said I could take it and I was confident that I would score.”
“It’s always nice to score your first goal for this amazing Club, I’m happy I managed to do that and it felt very, very good.”
Tottenham’s 5-0 win over Gillingham was a full team effort from the starters to the substitutes.
A fully rotated side with 11 changes saw Spurs simply overwhelm the Gills who came into the third round tie looking to knock Spurs out of the League Cup in their first match for the second consecutive season.
Goals from Christian Eriksen (a brace), Vincent Janssen, Josh Onomah and Érik Lamela. Starts from Harry Winks, Cameron Carter-Vickers and substitution appearances for Georges-Kévin N’Koudou, Anton Walkes and Marcus Edwards shows the amount of youth that Spurs’ academy has continued to produce over the years.
Not only that, but if Spurs can replicate a sliver of their form from last night’s match, then not only will Tottenham have plenty of depth at their disposal but the talent that Mauricio Pochettino has at his fingertips is quite easily the best in his two-and-half years in charge.
Janssen said it best that everyone produced in a collective effort. No one had a bad game, if anything, some players just did much better than others. But it was an a win-win situation for all.
Tottenham moves onto the next round, a majority of Pochettino’s first-team regulars got rest and Spurs’ youngsters earned some important playing time.
“Everyone played well, we controlled it from the beginning until the end, scored five goals and had chances to score more but the most important thing is that we played well and won,” Vincent Janssen added.
“I could feel the support from the fans and I have to thank them, they were very good for me, they were amazing.”