Tottenham qualified as Group J winners as they overcame a poor Monaco side 4-1, as Erik Lamela scored his first ever hat-trick for Spurs.
Tottenham rested a number of key players, including Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Kyle Walker and Jan Vertonghen as Pochettino opted to give squad players a chance to impress with qualification to the knockout stages already assured. It also meant that Josh Onomah was given his full debut in midfield, having made a number of substitute appearances in recent weeks.
Lamela’s opening goal came after Ben Davies made a magnificent run into the box and squared for the Argentinian winger to finish with less than two minutes on the clock. The second came when Son headed the ball into Lamela’s path who then fired past the Monaco goalkeeper, who should have kept the ball out. Lamela completed his first ever hat-trick for Spurs, when in the 37th minute, he received the ball from Son again and once again fired past Subasic to give Spurs a comfortable lead heading into half-time.
However, the first-half wasn’t all good news for Pochettino as Eric Dier had to be replaced by Nabil Bentaleb in the 42nd minute due to picking up an injury.
The second half was considerably quieter than the first, with neither side threatening the other teams goal. However, that changed in the 61st minute, as El-Sharaawy found the bottom corner with a curling effort to give Monaco a glimmer of hope.
Monaco failed to capitalize on their goal however, and in the 77th minute, Tom Carroll ended all hopes of a comeback when he scored his first senior goal for Tottenham.
The result means that Spurs qualify from Group J as group winners, whereas Monaco crash out of the Europa League having finished in 3rd place.
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