Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 Blackburn Rovers: Bale Gives Spurs The Lead

Blackburn might have to adjust their strategy of defending with 10 men behind the ball for 90 minutes as Tottenham Hotspur have scored in the 16th minute.

Spurs had dominated up until the goal with around 75% of the possession and three corner kicks, but no clear cut goal scoring opportunities. The fourth corner was a charm, though, as Spurs two best attacking players hooked up for a goal. Rafael van der Vaart hit an out-swinging corner from the right towards the head of a surging Bale, who was making a near post run. Bale was unmarked and had all the time in the world to line up his header. He hit it with plenty of direction and power towards the net, creating a virtually unstoppable shot for Paul Robinson and putting his team up 1-0. Blackburn would have hoped to have kept a clean sheet longer and will now have to adjust their gameplan slightly.

Spurs’ midfield grouping of Bale, van der Vaart, Jermaine Jenas, and Luka Modric in front of two strikers indicates that Harry Redknapp has little concern for the attacking threat of Blackburn and their five man back line.

Later on, referee Andre Marriner denied two consecutive penalty shouts by Spurs, waiving play on when Roman Pavlyuchenko went down and booking Luka Modric for diving. Interestingly enough, Pavlyuchenko appeared to dive while Modric appeared to have been fouled.

Elsewhere in England, Bolton took only 51 seconds to take a 1-0 lead on Wolves. Their dangerous ball into the box forced an own goal by Richard Stearman.