Harry Kane has told Tottenham they must win their final two Premier League games if they are to snatch a Europa League place.
Kane scored twice at St James’ Park on Wednesday evening as Spurs followed up their north London derby victory over Arsenal with a 3-1 success at Newcastle to climb into seventh place, a point behind Wolves in sixth and four shy of fifth-placed Manchester United.
However the England skipper, whose double took him past 200 career club goals, believes only wins over Leicester and Crystal Palace in their final two fixtures will give them a chance of European qualification.
That win was for you @Serge_aurier 💙 Very proud to reach 200 club goals. On to the next 200 ⚽️💯💯 pic.twitter.com/UM7LxfoHXK — Harry Kane (@HKane) July 15, 2020
Kane told Spurs TV: “It’s a massive win. We said before, three games, it has to be three wins if we want to have a shout of the Europa League.
“It was a difficult game away from home, they’re not an easy team to play against. We probably didn’t have our A-game, but we managed to find a way and we were obviously delighted to come away with the three points.
“That was a big win in the north London derby, it gave us a load of momentum going into these three final games.
“Some of the teams have got to play each other around us, so I would imagine two more wins and we should be in the Europa League places. But we can only take care of ourselves and wait to see what happens.”
It was Son Heung-min who opened the scoring on Tyneside somewhat against the run of play with 27 minutes gone, but the home side were back in it 11 minutes after the restart courtesy of Matt Ritchie’s blistering strike.
However, it was then that Kane took over, heading the visitors back in front on the hour and then helping himself to his 15th league goal of the season – in the process passing 20 in all competitions for the sixth successive campaign – at the death.
For the Magpies, who had already lost skipper Jamaal Lascelles for what remains of the campaign after he underwent ankle surgery on Tuesday, there was further misery when fellow defender Fabian Schar suffered a suspected dislocated shoulder and forward Allan Saint-Maximin damaged a calf muscle, leaving them with only nine men on the pitch at the final whistle.
The defeat was their third on the trot and neither his goal nor an enterprising display for much of the game came as much comfort to specialist midfielder Ritchie, who lined up at left wing-back.
He told NUFC TV: “You want to win games and pick up points and move up the table, and we’ve not done that the last few weeks.
“It’s a little kick up the a*** because going into next season, we’re certainly well aware that if you’re not at it, you don’t take your chances and you do leave yourselves that little bit open in this league, you get punished.
“It’s all good playing well, but this game is about results.”
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