Richarlison Marks Euro Debut With Two Goals As Tottenham Punish Marseille After Red Card

Tottenham 2-0 Marseille

Richarlison scored twice on his first-ever appearance in a UEFA competition as Tottenham started their Champions League campaign with a win over Marseille.

The former Everton forward found the net via two late headers on Wednesday night after Marseille had been reduced to 10 men on 47 minutes.

This was only the third UCL game ever played at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the first in the group phase.

No.9 Richarlison pictured celebrating after scoring his first two goals for Tottenham in a 2-0 win over Marseille

IMAGO/Action Plus/Shaun Brooks

Fans created an electric pre-match atmosphere but it had fallen flat by half-time after an uninspiring first 45 minutes.

But Spurs supporters were roused seconds after the restart when Chancel Mbemba was shown a straight red card for fouling Son Heung-min as the Korean looked to race through on goal.

The sending off changed the dynamic of the game, forcing Spurs to be more offensive.

But it still took Spurs until the 76th minute to register their first shot on target.

It arrived via the head of Richarlison, who powerfully diverted an Ivan Perisic cross into the net to score his first ever Spurs goal.

Richarlison thought he had scored for Spurs in a Premier League victory over Fulham four days earlier but was denied by a VAR review after he had already been shown a yellow card for removing his shirt in celebration.

This time he kept his shirt on and kept his head in the game.

That head found the net again five minutes later with an even better finish, this time following a cross by Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.

Spurs had ground down a strong Marseille side that had been unbeaten this season prior to their trip to London.

The French outfit did not throw the towel in, though, and almost denied Spurs a clean sheet in stoppage time but Ben Davies produced a superb block.

Tottenham's second game in Group D will be next Tuesday when they travel to Lisbon to face Sporting.

Sporting ended opening night top of the group after recording an impressive 3-0 win away to Eintracht Frankfurt.

Former Spurs midfielder Marcus Edwards scored for Sporting in Germany.