Next Generation Cup: Tottenham thrash Kerala Blasters 7-0

Bengaluru FC and Kerala Blasters FC’s reserve teams suffered big losses in the semifinals of the Next Generation Cup in the United Kingdom on Wednesday.

Blasters, featuring in the London leg of the tournament, were outplayed 7-0 by Tottenham Hotspur's youth side while Bengaluru FC went down 3-6 to Leicester City's youth team in the Midlands leg.

Blasters endured a difficult afternoon against Tottenham at the Tottenham Hotspur Academy Ground in London.

The English side got off to a fast start and started putting pressure on Blasters right from the kick-off.

Spurs drew first blood in the 31st minute after a save from Sachin Suresh fell onto Jahziah Linton who made no mistake and fired it down the middle.

The English side slotted another one as Riley Owen found Jaden Williams through a lofted pass in the box, with the latter latching it into the bottom corner of the net to make it 2-0 for his side.

Tottenham went into the break with the two-goal cushion intact.

Spurs fired off a great second half as Max McKnight made it three. The full-back was left unmarked after a threaded pass from Owen and he made no mistake in finding the net.

In the 60th minute, Blasters had their best chance of the match after a brilliant one-two between Jeakson Singh and Givson Singh found the latter in a shooting position but his shot went narrowly above the bar.

A minute later, Spurs fired their fourth from a brilliant counter-attack through Tom Bloxham.

In the 73rd minute, George Abbott skillfully got past two defenders and passed to his man on the left. Receiving the ball on the run, the attackers netted in the right corner to make it 5-0 for Spurs.

Then, Williams scored his side’s sixth from the penalty spot after he was brought down by Bijoy Varghese.

In the closing stages of the game, Williams completed his hat-trick after dribbling past three players and shooting into the far post from his weaker foot to make it 7-0.

Blasters will now fight for third place against Crystal Palace in the London leg of the event.

Early goals

Leicester took the lead against Bengaluru in the 13th minute when Kian Pennant scored at the end of a fine move.

William Alves then doubled the lead as Leicester pounced on some sloppy play from the Blues to make it 2-0 in the 18th minute.

Chris Popov then added a third for Leicester before Pennant struck again to make it 4-0 inside the first half an hour.

The Blues goalkeeper Sharon Padattil was kept busy and he made a top save to deny the Foxes a fifth before half-time.

However, the English side continued the onslaught after the break as Popov scored his second to make it 5-0 seven minutes into the second half before completing his hat-trick on the hour mark as the Foxes scored a sixth goal.

Bengaluru though sprung into life after the hour mark as Sivasakthi Narayanan got his team on the scoresheet after tapping home a rebound in the 67th minute.

Two minutes later, the Blues scored again through Damaitphang Lyngdoh as he brilliantly found the bottom corner with a well-taken finish.

Sivasakthi then scored a beauty for his second goal of the evening and made it 6-3 in the 73rd minute to bring the Indian side back in the game.

Leicester then regained control of the match and won a penalty in the 82nd minute but Bengaluru goalkeeper Deepesh Chauhan produced a double save to keep the score at 6-3.

Bengaluru will now fight for third place against Nottingham Forest in the Midlands leg on Saturday.