Spurs 1-0 AZ | Ange on Mikey: “Every time we were on the ball, I was willing the boys to pass it to him”

Ange Postecoglou led the tributes to Mikey Moore after the young winger’s electric display in our 1-0 win against AZ Alkmaar in the UEFA Europa League on Thursday evening.

Making his second start in the UEL, and his sixth appearance already in all competitions this season, the Academy graduate who only turned 17 in August dazzled in a 20-minute spell at the start of the second half when he took the game to our Dutch opponents from the left flank.

Mikey got the N17 crowd on its feet two minutes after the interval when he wriggled away from three AZ players and rolled into Brendan Johnson, whose effort was blocked. Moment later, he delivered a cross that was inches away from both Richarlison and Lucas Bergvall converting.

Richarlison opened the scoring with what turned out to be the winner from the penalty spot on 53 minutes after Lucas was upended in the box. Mikey still had two more dazzling runs in this spell, one resulting in a corner, the second with a low cross that somehow escaped across the six-yard line.

It was no surprise to see the youngster receive a standing ovation from all sides of Tottenham Hotspur Stadium when he was replaced by Wilson Odobert on 87 minutes.

Speaking to our Review Show afterwards, Ange told us: “I was going to try to downplay it, but apparently Madders has called him Neymar, so that’s blown that out of the water!

“The beauty of Mikey is that I know it won’t affect him at all. He’s such a mature young man. It was exciting. Every time we were on the ball I was willing the boys to pass it to him as well, because he’s got that ability to go past people, which is the hardest thing to do in our game, apart from scoring goals. If he’s not successful, it doesn’t faze him, he’ll just go again.

“He’s just turned 17, but even physically, he’s such a strong young man, and I know he’ll get better. He was brilliant, but he’s been brilliant every time he’s played for us, we just have to be careful how we use him and when we use him because, for us, he’s going to be a pretty special player. If he keeps performing like that, everything else takes care of itself.”