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Jose Mourinho Had The Goals Changes Before Spurs' Europa League Game

Jose Mourinho Had The Goals Changes Before Spurs' Europa League Game

Things were right for Tottenham ahead of their Europa League qualifier against KF Shkendija in Macedonia on Thursday night.

Ryan Sidle

Ryan Sidle

Jose Mourinho took the phrase 'moving the goalposts' to a very literal level on Thursday, asking them to be changed by UEFA ahead of Tottenham Hotspur's win over KF Shkendija.

The goalkeepers noticed during the warm up that the goals seemed small and it turned out that they were right, with the posts two inches shorter than they were supposed to be.

Shkendija's Europa League games were being held in the national stadium, the Tose Proeski Arena, and the hosts weren't being accused of cheating, but Mourinho did report the goals and they were changed to the proper size before kick off.

Speaking about the incident, the Spurs boss said, "Before the game was a funny situation because my goalkeeper [Joe Hart] told me the goal was small.

"I went to see and it was small.

"The goalkeepers spend all their time in them so we know.

"I felt immediately something was wrong and we got the UEFA delegate to come in and it was 5cm too small. We asked for goals of the right dimensions."

The Spurs boss even took to social media after the game to pose with the original goal, which measured up at 7ft 10 instead of the regulation 8ft, and had Hugo Lloris pose in the goal too.

When the game started, with the right sized nets, the Premier League side got off to a good start, with Erik Lamela opening the scoring.

However it wasn't plain sailing as the hosts equalised in the 55th minute with a rocket of a goal that might have had Joe Hart wishing the nets were smaller.

Son Heung-min and Harry Kane, the latter on as a substitute, did get the win though with goals in the 70th and 79th minutes.

Spurs have had a packed schedule already this month, with the Premier League and Carabao Cup starting as well as the qualifiers for the Europa League, and this would have been their third game of the week.

However earlier in the week they had their Carabao Cup game cancelled due to opponents Leyton Orient having several positive Coronavirus tests.

Featured Image Credit: Instagram

Topics: Joe Hart, Spurs, Football News, Jose Mourinho, Tottenham Hotspur, Hugo Lloris, Premier League