Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
After a comprehensive win over AS Roma earlier in the week, Tottenham’s 100% record in the International Champions Cup has fallen by the wayside after a penalty shoout out loss to Barcelona in the small hours of Sunday morning.
After finding themselves 2-0 down in the first half hour it looked as if it could have been a long run out for the North London outfit. Firstly Munir opened proceedings for the Catalan giants on a quarter of hour while new signing Arthur doubled Barcelona’s advantage just 15 minutes later.
Credit must go to Tottenham though for offering a spirited comeback, it would have been easy for the heads to drop especially in a friendly fixture such as this and although they would eventually fall short due to the lottery of penalties they were at least gallant in defeat.
Christian Eriksen fired a warning shot after his free-kick rattled the woodwork from all of 30 yards and eventually Mauricio Pochettino’s men would manage to get a foothold in the game, Heung min-Son fired home after teammate Eriksen saw his initial effort blocked.
This set up something of a grandstand finish and it was one that saw Tottenham restore parity late on, it may not have been pretty but they certainly all count. Georges Kevin N’Koudou who spent some time on loan at Burnley last season prodded home after an almighty goalmouth scramble.
That goal meant the clash progressed to penalties and it was here that Tottenham’s luck run short, Anthony Georgiou who impressed during the game saw his effort from 12 yards saved by Jasper Cillessen while Barcelona slotted home all five to win the tie.
Like any pre-season friendly though you have to ask yourselves just how much you can read into it, Tottenham certainly didn’t disgrace themselves if anything far from it but defeat in this competition (albeit by penalties) just offers up a shrug of the shoulders.
If you weren’t lucky (or mad) enough to stay up until 4.05am UK time here are is the best of the action
