Tottenham Hotspur stars James Maddison and Dominic Solanke were left stunned as they praised defender Mickey Van de Ven for his incredible solo goal during their 4-0 win over FC Copenhagen. The Dutch defender's marauding run forward saw him fire home the third for 10-man Spurs.
The towering centre-half continued his superb start to life under Thomas Frank with a goal of the season contender to give the north London club and earned an important win in the Champions League. Tuesday night's triumph added a win back in the column after a goalless draw with AS Monaco last time out but before Wednesday's fixtues, Spurs sit in the automatic qualification places.
But Van de Ven has stolen the headlines for his superb effort which has led to the Danish head coach likening it to a Lionel Messi-like finish.
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"I definitely need to think a little bit about that, but it seems like we had Lionel Messi turned into Micky Van de Ven running down from his own goal and all the way to the other end to score a fantastic goal," said Frank.
"I think he's our top scorer in all competitions so he can keep going. He can keep, by the way, walking past me if he's angry after a game if he delivers like this."
Injured duo Solanke and Maddison were left gushing over their teammates display of individual quality.
The England forward, who is recovering from an ankle injury, wrote on his Instagram story: "Excuse my language but f****** hell @mickvdven [four shocked face emojis]."
Maddison added: "Micky [eight startled face emojis]," accompanied by a gif showing actor Matt LeBlanc shocked.
On his heroic effort that former Spurs star Gareth Bale would have been proud of, Van de Ven said: "To be honest, I saw a little gap in front of me, so I was like: 'OK I'll start dribbling now and I will see if they can catch up.'
"Then I saw the space every time more and more and then at one point I felt like, 'I'm through now, I'll go for goal' now."
The goal reminded many of Bale's driving runs for Tottenham and Real Madrid, showing just how much pace Van de Ven has in the locker.
In terms of the match itself on Tuesday night, it didn't all go Spurs' way as they were reduced to 10 men shortly after Wilson Odobert doubled the lead, with VAR intervening to show Brennan Johnson a red card.
However, the hosts managed to take the game away from the Danish side after Joao Palhinha added gloss on the win three minutes after Van de Ven netted the third.
It meant that Spurs ended a run of two straight defeats, following disappointment against Newcastle and Chelsea, in overcoming the potential banana skin.
The difficult tasks keep on coming at the London Stadium with a resurgent Manchester United to come before a north London derby against Arsenal and trip to Champions League holders Paris Saint-Germain after the international break.
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