Bryan Gil labelled Rodrigo Bentancur as an ‘animal’ on his Instagram story for his stoppage-time winner during Tottenham Hotspur’s comeback 3-2 win over Bournemouth on Saturday.
Only days after Harry Kane had a last-gasp winner ruled out for offside against Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League, this goal stood.
Just like in midweek, Antonio Conte’s side made life very difficult for themselves with another timid and abject first-half showing.
Against Sporting, many of the big boys were starting, aside from the likes of Richarlison and Dejan Kulusevski who are injured.
But that wasn’t the case against Bournemouth, with Conte starting with a much weaker XI and then having to call upon the likes of Gil and Bentancur to change the game in the second half.
In the end, from the subs that came on, Ivan Perisic supplied the assist for Ben Davies’s equaliser after Ryan Sessegnon had pulled a goal back, whilst Bentencur scored the all-important winning goal.
BENTANCUR SHOWCASING HIS GOALSCORING THREAT
A lot has been made about how Conte sets up and many want the Italian to allow his team to be more free-flowing and attack-minded from the get-go.
Throughout his career, he has always liked to play two defensive-minded midfielders in the middle of the park.
When he was at Chelsea, it was N’Golo Kante and Nemanja Matic. Given Matic’s style, height and mannerisms on the ball, you could argue there are similarities between him and Bentancur.
The 25-year-old has this ability to showcase a bit of flair when driving forward with the ball, as well as a knack for scoring. He has three goals in all competitions this season.
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