Tottenham recorded a much-needed victory as they secured a 3-2 win against Hoffenheim in the Europa League on Thursday evening. Following Sunday's 3-2 defeat at Everton, Ange Postecoglou was able to name Rodrigo Bentancur in his Spurs side for the first time since the Carabao Cup win over Liverpool.

Brandon Austin was also given the nod in Antonin Kinsky's absence, with Richarlison starting through the middle after two positive cameo appearances since his return from injury. The visitors made the perfect start to the game with James Maddison opening the scoring in style on three minutes after finishing emphatically following a long pass from Pedro Porro.

Porro had a huge chance of his own to net 10 minutes later but the Spaniard shot wide of the post when played through by Son Heung-min. Thankfully the right-back wasn't made to pay for his miss as Son doubled Tottenham's tally midway through the first half after Maddison had set him free.

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Hoffenheim did cause issues for Tottenham in the second half and they duly pulled one back through Anton Stach not long after Spurs were on the end of a correct VAR call after the referee had earlier pointed to the penalty spot following an apparent foul from Austin. Needing another goal to restore their two-goal cushion, Son scored his second of the contest late on to give Spurs some breathing space prior to David Ngabi Mokwa Ntusu heading home on the cusp of full-time.

Here are five things we spotted in the match at the PreZero Arena:

Where are the subs?

Postecoglou went into Thursday's Europa League tie against Hoffenheim missing a total of 14 players. Seeing Pape Matar Sarr join the long list of injured players this week, the boss also had to do without Kinsky, Djed Spence, Sergio Reguilon and Yang Min-hyeok as the quartet are ineligible to feature in the Europa League at present.

Having very limited numbers as a result of the above, Postecoglou named a total of eight players on his substitutes' bench rather than the 12 you can select in UEFA competition. It was an extremely youthful bench he named as well.

Boasting the experience of Fraser Forster amongst the substitutes, there was a real lack of first-team appearances after that as Alfie Whiteman, Malachi Hardy, Dante Cassanova, Damola Ajayi, Callum Olusesi, Mikey Moore and Will Lankshear completed the numbers on the bench. Postecoglou is in a real tricky position at present and he unfortunately has a real lack of experienced options to bring on in games if required.

Maddison impact

The opening minutes really couldn't have gone much better for Tottenham as Maddison opened the scoring with only three minutes on the clock. Heading into such an important fixture, his goal calmed any possible nerves following a dreadful run of late.

His strike was exquisite as he took Porro's long ball down in style before firing high into the roof of the net. Maddison may have found himself in and out of the team of late but he has still contributed with nine goals this season.

He also added an assist to his numbers after some fine play to release Son to score on 22 minutes. Amid his struggles at times recently, Maddison looked extremely confident in his play and hopefully that bodes well going into Sunday's Leicester City game and beyond.

Porro's big moment

Leading 2-0 and having the chances to extend the scoreline, Tottenham also found themselves in an awkward position about 10 minutes before the break. Porro was required to make a crucial intervention and he duly celebrated like he scored a goal himself after denying the hosts in a two-vs-one situation.

With Tottenham's backline pushing across to the left, Hoffenheim midfielder Stach ghosted into the area between Bentancur and Lucas Bergvall to take in the ball. Porro had spotted the danger and duly moved away from Max Moerstedt to nip in at the perfect time to stop Stach testing Austin in goal.

It was outstanding play from Porro and it was no surprise to see him celebrate his tackle.

Austin's funny moment

After his heroics against Newcastle United at the start of the month, Austin has had to remain very patient on the substitutes' bench following the arrival of Kinsky at the club. With the Czech ace unable to feature in the Europa League for now as he is not part of Tottenham's European squad, Austin got the nod ahead of Forster to start against Hoffenheim.

The academy graduate frustrated the hosts on a couple of occasions in the first half, most notably with a superb one-handed save to stop Tom Bischof from finding the bottom corner with a low shot. Austin and the Spurs defence were certainly busier in the second half as the Bundesliga club upped the pressure in hope of getting back into the contest.

Christian Ilzer's side were handed the opportunity to do exactly that after referee Morten Krogh pointed to the penalty spot after Moerstedt went to ground after challenging for the ball in the air with Austin. It looked an extremely harsh decision on the Spurs goalkeeper as it appeared that he got the slightest of touches to the ball when trying to collect a cross from the right.

After a long wait and with Andrej Kramaric lining up to take the penalty, Krogh finally went over to the screen on the halfway line and spent a good minute or two going over the footage of the incident. Deciding that it wasn't a penalty, the Dane ran back towards the penalty box and cancelled the yellow card that he had earlier brandished in Austin's direction.

Duly putting his hand out to get the ball that was in the goalkeeper's possession, Austin believed that the referee wanted to shake hands and he offered his hand out to greet the official. However, he quickly moved his hand back when he realised that the referee was in fact after the ball.

Olusesi's big moment arrives

The moment Olusesi has been waiting for finally arrived in Germany on Thursday evening. A regular in the Tottenham squad in recent months due a lack of players at Postecoglou's disposal, the academy star was introduced in place of Maddison in the final few minutes of the contest.

Coming on at a crucial time for Spurs after Mokwa had just pulled one back for the German outfit, Olusesi had a positive introduction immediately after coming on as he teamed up with fellow academy youngsters Moore and Lankshear.

The 17-year-old had been an unused substitute in 16 games in all competitions for Tottenham this season before he was entered the field of play at Hoffenheim. Hopefully a few more appearances are on the horizon for the teenager after waiting quite some time for his first.

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