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Europa League: Solanke & Porro strike as Spurs seal all-English final

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Tottenham will face Manchester United in the Europa League final as they cruised past Bodo/Glimt to stay in the hunt for a first European title in 41 years.

Ange Postecoglou’s men navigated a tricky semi-final second leg in Norway to reach their sixth European final – and first since the 2019 Champions League final.

Dominic Solanke and Pedro Porro struck in the second half to seal a 5-1 aggregate success and confirm an all-English showdown with United in Bilbao on 21 May.

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Spurs’ trophy drought stretches to a League Cup triumph in 2008, but further back to 1984 in Europe when they won the Uefa Cup.

Postecoglou’s bold statement in September that he always wins silverware in his second season at a club had been met with mockery at times this term, with Tottenham 16th in the Premier League.

Yet they are now one game away from ending their barren spell to prove the Australian right, despite their abject domestic season.

They succeeded without the injured James Maddison, Lucas Bergvall and Heung-min Son in what was a historic game for the hosts, who had never reached a European semi-final before.

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The 3-1 home first-leg win last week gave Spurs a cushion and they managed the return expertly, limiting energetic Bodo to few opportunities on the artificial pitch.

The hosts, who knocked out Lazio in the quarter-final and beat Porto at home, needed an early goal but it never came, with Guglielmo Vicario turning away Patrick Berg’s free kick.

A textbook tight opening half gave way to a controlled second as fears Tottenham would freeze in the Arctic Circle proved unfounded.

Full-back Destiny Udogie thwarted Kasper Hogh, but Solanke put the tie further out of reach after 63 minutes when he poked in from close range from a Cristian Romero knockdown.

Six minutes later Porro’s looping cross dropped in off the post to end any Bodo hopes, with the Norwegian side having an injury-time penalty overturned by the video assistant referee (VAR).

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