It was a huge night for some of Tottenham Hotspur’s international stars on Saturday.
England talisman Harry Kane moved level-second with Sir Bobby Charlton on 49 goals with his match-winning spot kick for Gareth Southgate’s Three Lions in their 2-1 win over Switzerland.
The 28-year-old is now merely four goals away from Wayne Rooney’s 53-goal record with more friendlies and this winter’s World Cup to come.
Time and time again, Kane continues to prove to be one of the country’s very best centre-forwards but he wasn’t the only Spurs man to be in electric goalscoring form this weekend.
Forgotten Dutch winger Steven Bergwijn also made the headlines with a game-clinching brace over Denmark, who had Lilywhites enforcer Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg starting in the middle of midfield.
Whilst ex-playmaker Christian Eriksen came off the bench to score in his first appearance for the Red and Whites since his cardiac arrest at Euro 2020 last June.
Bergwijn, however, was a real thorn in Kasper Hjulmand’s side in the 77 minutes he was on the pitch.
The 24-year-old has struggled for game time domestically, managing only 811 minutes across 25 appearances this season – that’s merely half an hour per outing, via Transfermarkt.
Only 337 of those minutes have come under manager Antonio Conte, just 41.5% of his total for the campaign so far, so you could reasonably suggest that he’s just not fancied, especially given the impact of January signing Dejan Kulusevski.
It’s also evident that Lucas Moura even sits ahead of the £25m signing in the pecking order, too.
However, the former PSV Eindhoven dynamo may have just fired a timely reminder of his attacking credentials to the Italian head coach this weekend.
At the Johan Cruyff ArenA, he opened the scoring with a brilliant header that nestled in the top corner, after former Manchester United man Daley Blind whipped in a pin-point cross from the left flank.
He then rounded off his display with a second strike – a quite exquisite finish. The bustling £18m-rated winger cut inside and curled a wonderful effort into the top corner again.
With veteran Louis van Gaal deploying a three-back system, Conte will have plenty to think about as Bergwijn led the line alongside FC Barcelona star Memphis Depay.
As per FotMob, the Dutch attacker also created two key chances, registered two successful dribbles and had a 100% shot accuracy.
Former Spurs boss Nuno Santo believed Bergwijn offered Spurs something “unique” and that he was a “very talented player” during his time at the helm, whilst local reporter Alasdair Gold once dubbed him “incredible” for his work rate against Arsenal last season.
With doubts over Kulusevski’s availability after the international break, Bergwijn may have just fired his name into the reckoning for a rare start against Newcastle United next week.
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