Tottenham Hotspur booked their place in the last-16 of the UEFA Europa League with a comfortable 4-0 win over Austrian side Wolfsberger AS in the second-leg of their last-32 clash last night.
Leading 4-1 from the first-leg in Budapest last week, Spurs ensured there would not be any slip ups as goals from Carlos Vinicius (2), Dele Alli and substitute Gareth Bale sealed a comfortable night's work for Jose Mourinho's much-changed team.
In total, following Sunday's 2-1 defeat to West Ham United in the Premier League, Mourinho opted to make nine changes to his starting line-up, offering those who have been on the fringes of the squad in recent weeks an opportunity to impress.
Although Spurs were always favourites to overcome the lowest-ranked side left in the competition, no shortage of those presented with a chance to prove their worth grasped with the opportunity with both hands, particularly Dele.
The England international, who was heavily linked with an exit from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium throughout the January transfer window, as former Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino eyed a reunion with him at Paris Saint-Germain, was the star of the show, scoring a stunning overhead-kick before setting up Vinicius for his first goal of the night and then teeing up Bale to lash home his second goal in as many Europa League appearances.
To have scored a Goal of the Season contender and registered two assists will have done wonders for himself and his prospects of cementing himself back in Mourinho's plans. Whether he will have done enough to stake a claim for a starting berth in the Premier League remains to be seen.
However, should Dele be handed another start in the next round of the Europa League, regardless of who Spurs face, he will be walking a disciplinary tightrope. Although he avoided picking up a yellow card on Wednesday evening, Dele has two yellow cards to his name in the Europa League this term, meaning he is only one booking away from a one-match suspension.
The former MK Dons man is not alone, though, in walking a disciplinary tightrope ahead of the last-16, as both Matt Doherty, who sent over the cross for Dele to score his wonder goal against Wolfsberger, and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, who played no part in the contest, are also on two bookings each.
That means that all three players will be walking a very fine line when the last-16 takes place, with three bookings resulting in a one-match ban.
Fortunately, should Doherty, Hojbjerg and Dele all avoid yellow cards in the next round of the competition, and Spurs progress to the quarter-finals, that immediate threat of a ban would be a distant memory as the card system is reset once the last-eight of the competition gets going.
Thus, should all three players, though unlikely, get booked in the first-leg of Spurs' respective last-16 tie, they would miss the second-leg of that tie, whilst a booking in the second-leg, should Spurs progress, would mean a suspension for the first-leg of the quarter-finals.
However, should all three players avoid a yellow card in the last-16, they will be in no danger of an immediate ban if they were to be booked in the last-eight of the competition.
