Tottenham suffered a blow in their quest for the Europa Conference League trophy after Maximilian Wittek earned Vitesse Arnhem a 1-0 win on Thursday.
With the 11 players who started against Newcastle left at home, a reserve XI took to the field at a noisy, packed GelreDome that clearly wanted it more than the visitors.
Spurs lacked serious link-up play for much of the first-half and failed to deliver any end product when they found themselves in good positions.
Meanwhile, Vitesse were confident in defence and had plenty of threat going forward, Nikolai Baden Frederiksen breaking free to test Pierluigi Gollini in the opening minutes and Jacob Rasmussen going close with a neat flicked header from a corner.
Nuno Espirito Santo evidently got in his players’ ear at half-time as Bryan Gil wrapped a sweetly-hit effort from 20 yards against the crossbar moments after the restart.
With the tempo upped by at least a notch or two, Spurs showed that they clearly had it in them to unlock the Vitesse defence.
Yet Steven Bergwijn, built up before the game, was guilty of wasting opportunities with multiple counter-attacks going to waste. Giovani Lo Celso and young forward Dane Scarlett were also guilty of lacking any end product.
Sensing the lack of threat from the Premier League team, Vitesse pushed forward and were rewarded through Wittek’s fabulous connection with Eli Dasa’s smart cross to the edge of the area.
The strike was enough to win the game and send the Dutch fans into raptures, underlining how Vitesse simply wanted it more.
