London, England (SportsNetwork.com) - Tottenham cruised to a convincing victory over Asteras Tripolis in Europa League action on Thursday, sticking five goals past the Greek side in a 5-1 win at White Hart Lane.
Harry Kane netted a hat trick in the victory and opened the scoring with a brilliant shot from distance in the 13th minute.
Erik Lamela doubled Tottenham's advantage at the half-hour mark with a superb "rabona" effort from the top of the penalty area before making it three for the home side in the 66th minute.
Kane then made sure of the emphatic victory by tacking on two goals in the span of five minutes, securing Tottenham's first Europa League win of the season.
The only sour note of the match came in the 87th minute when goalkeeper Hugo Lloris was sent off for denying a scoring opportunity by committing a foul outside the penalty area.
Spurs already had used their three allotted substitutions, forcing Kane to deputize for the French 'keeper. The Tottenham striker was unable to keep the ensuing free kick out of the net as Jeronimo Barrales fired home a consolation goal for Asteras.
In Group C's other contest, Besiktas netted two goals on either side of halftime to cruise to a 4-0 defeat of Partizan Beograd.
The results leave Besiktas and Tottenham level atop the table on five points apiece, followed closely by Asteras on four points and Partizan on one point.
In Group A, Ibrahima Traore netted a brace in Borussia Monchengladbach's 5-0 thrashing of Apollon Limassol while four different scorers helped Villarreal claim a 4-1 victory over FC Zurich.
In Group B, Daniel Amartey and Victor Vazquez exchanged last-minute goals as Copenhagen played to a 1-1 draw at Brugge while Cristian Molinaro and Amauri provided the goals in Torino's 2-0 defeat of HJK.
In Group D, Celtic staved off some late pressure to collect a 2-1 win over Astra Giurgiu and Alan's hat trick lifted Red Bull Salzburg to a 4-2 victory over Dinamo Zagreb.
In Group E, Yuri Zhirkov bagged the winner as Dinamo Moscow earned a 2-1 win at Estoril and PSV Eindhoven squandered a late lead to settle for a point from a 1-1 draw with Panathinaikos.
In Group F, Muarem Muarem tallied the lone goal in FC Karabakh's 1-0 defeat of Dnipro while Inter Milan was held to a 0-0 at the San Siro by St. Etienne.
In Group G, Andrej Kramaric produced all three goals in Rijeka's 3-1 victory over Feyenoord while Sevilla failed to find the back of the net in a 0-0 draw at Standard Liege.
In Group H, Kevin de Bruyne scored twice to lift Wolfsburg to a 4-2 victory at FC Krasnodar while Everton was held scoreless in a 0-0 draw with Lille at Goodison.
In Group I, Sparta Prague netted three second-half goals en route to a 3-0 victory at Slovan Bratislava and Napoli was stunned in a 2-0 loss at Young Boys.
In Group J, Dynamo Kyiv was undone by Nicolaj Thomsen's brace as the Russian club suffered a 3-0 defeat to AaB and Raul Andrei Rusecu scored twice in Steaua Bucurest's 2-1 victory over Rio Ave.
In Group K, Dinamo Minsk split the points with Guingamp in a 0-0 draw while Juan Vargas hit for the only goal in Fiorentina's 1-0 victory at PAOK.
And in Group L, Mustapha Yatabare and Kevin Constant scored a goal apiece as Trabzonspor collected a 2-0 victory over Lokeren.
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