Tottenham Hotspur beat LASK Linz in Europa League as Bale gets start

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Tottenham Hotspur handily beat LASK Linz 3-0 in their Europa League group stage opener on Thursday night in north London.

Spurs started brightly and found their opener shortly before the 20-minute mark when debutant Carlos Vinicius squared for his Brazil countryman Lucas Moura, who beat LASK keeper Alexander Schlager for the early lead.

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- Ratings: Vinicius 8/10, Bale 7/10 in Spurs win

Gareth Bale, making his second appearance and first start since joining Spurs on loan from Real Madrid, helped the hosts double their lead 10 minutes later when his cross was redirected into the LASK goal by defender Andres Andrade to make it 2-0.

""We went out there today and did a great job. We were solid and threatening and the most important thing in these games at the start is to get the three points," Bale said.

LASK came close to getting on the scoresheet shortly before half-time, but Joe Hart made a quality save from Andreas Gruber's well-struck shot to preserve Tottenham's two-goal lead going into the break.

Tottenham added a third to put the game away in the 84th minute when Vinicius notched his second assist to set up substitute Son Heung-min to leave Spurs atop Group J after securing all three points.