Gareth Bale slots back in seamlessly in Europa stroll for Spurs

Tottenham Hotspur's Gareth Bale (centre right) and team-mates before the UEFA Europa League match. Picture: Adam Davy

Uefa Europa League: Tottenham 3 Lask 0

Gareth Bale finally made the Tottenham starting line-up for the first time in seven years, and although he did not score, the Welshman got an assist and an hour of football under his belt.

Spurs ran out comfortable winners against Lask, the Austrian side that lost 7-1 on aggregate to Manchester United in the last 16 of this competition last season, and Bale followed up on his cameo appearance as a late substitute at the weekend with some solid game time as he bids to regain match fitness.

Jose Mourinho made eight changes from the side that drew with West Ham on Sunday, with Bale joined in attack by Carlos Vinicius, the Brazilian striker signed from Benfica recently.

Vinicius is a big man, and he had big boots to fill last night as he replaced Harry Kane in the forward line. And it looked like those boots were made of lead when he missed an absolute sitter inside 10 minutes, putting a free header wide from barely six yards out.

But Vinicius made amends eight minutes later when his fancy footwork and alertness set up Lucas Moura to open the scoring. Ben Davies, captain for the night, launched a forward pass and Vinicius took it down perfectly and in the same instant turned to drill a low pass past his marker and into the path of Moura, who hardly had to break stride before firing a low shot past Alex Schlager in the Lask goal.

Moura went straight over to thank Vinicius, and Tottenham's players celebrated with him as if he had scored himself. And he played a significant part in Tottenham's second goal, in the 37th minute. Sergio Reguilon was the architect with a scintillating run from deep on the left to the centre, and the ball was relayed by Erik Lamela to Bale on the right. The Welshman could have gone for goal but unselfishly played a low cross towards the lurking Vinicius, who looked marginally offside. It did not matter, as the unfortunate Andres Andrade turned the ball into his own net before it could reach the Brazilian, and Spurs were 2-0 ahead. 

It should have been 3-0 a minute later when Lamela's low shot squirmed through Schlager grasp, but the goalkeeper sprinted back to claw the ball off the goal-line before Bale could follow up.

Spurs were well in control, but got a taste of what the Austrians had to offer when a loose ball from Pierre Emile Hojbjerg was seized upon by Andreas Gruber in first-half stoppage time. The midfielder's shot was arrowing firmly towards the top corner of goal before Joe Hart flung himself full length to make a marvellous save.

Dominik Thalhammer made changes for the second half and Lask responded with a good period of pressure on Hart's goal. But it was still Tottenham who looked most like scoring next. Lamela curled a shot just wide of the far post shortly after half-time, and then tried to set Bale free for a run on goal, only for Schlager to race out of the penalty area and sweep the ball clear.

That was Bale's final involvement, as Mourinho replaced him with Heung Min Son for the final half-hour. Dele Alli and Moussa Sissoko also went on, and were soon involved in a swift counter attack that ended in a corner which was headed over the Lask goal by Matt Doherty.

A flying run from Moura set up Son, whose shot was deflected over, and the Brazilian winger, who hardly stopped running all night, headed the subsequent corner over the bar.

Dele Alli beat Lask's offside trap in the closing stages, but his shot was too near Schlager, who took out the sting with his hands and raced back to hack the ball off the line.

But Son made it 3-0 in the 84th minute with another assist from Vinicius, who controlled Doherty's cross with a cushioned header into the Korean's path for a simple finish.

So Spurs went into the closing stages with a three-goal lead, and unlike on Sunday they did not blow it this time.

TOTTENHAM 4-2-3-1 Hart 7; Doherty 6, Sanchez 6, Davies 7, Reguilon 7; Hojbjerg 6 (Sissoko 61), Winks 8; Bale 6 (Son 61), Lamela 7 (Alli 61), Moura 9 (Lo Celso 78); Vinicius 7 (Clark 85)

LASK 4-3-3 Schlager 7; Wiesinger 6, Trauner 7, Andrade 5 (Potzmann 46), Renner 5 (Filipovic 39); Ranftl 6 , Michorl 6, Holland 5 (Grgic 5) ; Raguz 5, Balic 5 (Goiginger 78) Gruber 6 (Eggestein 46) Referee: Mohammed Al-Hakim