Hearts Vs Tottenham, Europa League Qualifying: Spurs Crush Hearts 5-0 At Tynecastle

It was a one-sided game, and a one-sided result at Tynecastle, with Tottenham in supreme form as they gave Hearts a 5-0 thrashing. There were 5 different goalscorers for Spurs, who finished with Aaron Lennon, Gareth Bale, Jake Livermore, Rafael Van der Vaart, and Jermain Defoe all on the scoresheet.

Nonetheless, there was a touch of fortune about the opening goal, with Rafael Van Der Vaart benefiting from an awkward Marius Zaliukas clearance to slot past Marian Kello. Shortly afterwards, Jermain Defoe made it two after good work from Aaron Lennon put him through to score.

Hearts’ defending had been statuesque up to that point, and they could do nothing but stand and watch as Jake Livermore, who gave a mature performance alongside Niko Kranjcar to run the game from midfield, played a one-two with Jermain Defoe and put home Tottenham’s third before the break.

After half-time, Hearts came out the better of the two teams. A series of corners were just about dealt with by Heurelho Gomes before Andrew Driver showed some skill to set up Thompson, who put his chance over the bar.

Normal service was soon resumed though, with Gareth Bale making it four, collecting Tom Huddlestone’s fine pass to race past the Hearts defence and Marian Kello for an easy finish.

Finally, Aaron Lennon made it five by finishing off a superb counter-attacking goal, collecting Jermain Defoe’s pass to touch into the Hearts goal and complete the rout.

Overall, a crushingly disappointing night for Hearts, who were tremendously poor against a superb Tottenham side, who were in excellent form for their first match of the season. Even the most optimistic of Hearts fans would be unable to see a way for Hearts to come back from this one – Spurs can make their plans for the group stages now.