Postecoglou: Spurs ‘paid the price’ in ‘self-inflicted’ Gala defeat after ‘enthusiastic’ Lankshear red card

Ange Postecoglou blamed Will Lankshear’s red card on “overenthusiasm” on a memorable night for the 19-year-old against Galatasaray.

Lankshear became Tottenham’s youngest scorer in a major European competition since Harry Kane scored against Shamrock Rovers in the 2011/12 Europa League.

On a night to remember, the teenager got sent off after receiving two yellow cards, becoming the third youngest player in Europa League history to score and be shown a red card in the same game.

After the 3-2 defeat at Galatasaray, Spurs boss Postecoglou said his red card came from “overenthusiasm” but the youngster will “learn from that”.

“Will took his goal well, he worked hard for the team,” Big Ange said.

“Obviously he hasn’t had a lot of experience at senior football so he would have learnt a lot today.

“The red card, it was a bit of overenthusiasm in that moment to give away a foul, but he’ll learn from that.”

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On putting three teenagers in starting XI, Postecoglou added: “The same with Lucas [Bergvall]. Giving him an understanding of the levels here, it is not easy when you are playing away in Europe.

“You can only allow them to learn that by exposing them to it.

“I thought Archie [Gray] was great. It was a tough game for us defensively at different times but I think we’ll get so much growth out of him because he’s not playing in his position.

“I guess for three teenagers in the starting line-up, I think they’ll learn a lot from it and hopefully it helps with their development.”

It was a chastening evening for Spurs centre-back Radu Dragusin, who was caught out several times in the first half, though he did make a few crucial interventions in the second 45.

While he was to blame for the creation of several Galatasaray scoring opportunities, Dragusin was not solely to blame for the constant bombardment of Fraser Forster’s goal.

After the 36-year-old was forced to make five saves, four of which came from shots inside the penalty area, and Postecoglou believes Gala’s freedom in attack “was self-inflicted”.

“It was self-inflicted,” Postecoglou said. “The moments that stick out to me was giving the ball away.

“In the first half we gave the ball away too much.

“We lacked composure and we allowed Galatasaray to get a foothold in the game and we paid the price for that.”