Football: Conte seeks ‘stability’ as Bentancur’s late double gives Spurs win in thriller against Leeds
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Tottenham Hotspur's Rodrigo Bentancur celebrates scoring their fourth goal with teammates.
PHOTO: REUTERS/ACTION IMAGES
LONDON – There were positives and negatives for Antonio Conte in his assessment of Tottenham Hotspur’s performances in the first part of the season as the Premier League heads into the World Cup break.
On Saturday, Uruguayan Rodrigo Bentancur’s late double helped Spurs beat Leeds United 4-3 in a thriller with the hosts coming from behind thrice.
Conte’s side appeared to be signing off before Qatar 2022 with a third successive home league defeat as Leeds led 3-2 with less than 10 minutes left thanks to Spaniard Rodrigo’s brace and a strike by Crysencio Summerville.
But Bentancur’s deflected shot made it 3-3 in the 81st minute. Two minutes later, the World Cup-bound Uruguay midfielder was set up by Dejan Kulusevski for a simple finish as they snatched all three points. Spurs had also scored through Harry Kane and Ben Davies.
“I think the positive things are that we showed great character, great desire and great will not to give up,” Conte said.
“The negative side, to concede three goals is never good. A team that wants to be competitive, to concede three goals is never positive. You need to find stability.”
Leeds ended the match with 10 men after Tyler Adams was shown a second yellow card in the closing stages.
Tottenham had levelled initially through Kane’s 12th goal of the season with Davies making it 2-2.
Victory meant Tottenham are in fourth place with 29 points from 15 games.
“I have to be really pleased with the commitment and behaviour of my players, and for this reason I think that we did a really good job in the first half of the season,” Conte added.
Elsewhere, Liverpool strikers Darwin Nunez and Roberto Firmino propelled the team to a 3-1 home win over Southampton, with Nunez scoring his fourth and fifth league goals after a slow start to the season.
The Reds have 22 points, just one behind fifth-placed Manchester United whose result against Fulham on Sunday night was not available at press time.
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp was in the stands serving a one-match touchline ban for getting sent off in October’s win over Manchester City, but went to the pitch after the match to salute the home fans.
“We did everything what Southampton didn’t want us to do... So, we used the speed of Mo (Mohamed Salah) and Darwin, we used the spaces we create with the speed in between the lines, we used our football skills,” he said. REUTERS, AFP
