Tottenham Hotspur 1-1 Sevilla FC
Tottenham’s last game of their Korean tour took them to Suwon where 44,000 enthusiastic fans packed into the World Cup Stadium.
They came up against a strong and aggressive Sevilla side who looked puncture the feel-good nature of the last week.
Sevilla were the better team for much of a fiery first half that saw them keep the ball brilliantly in possession and pressing the Spurs defence whenever they tried to play out from the back.
Spurs were reduced to a long-range effort from Heung Min Son before Harry Kane had a goal rightly chalked off for offside.
Sevilla should have opened the scoring twice. Eric Lamela, playing his former side for the first time, hit the post from a shot on the edge of the Spurs box.
Then, Rafa Mir latched onto a sloppy back pass from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg. Luckily for the Dane, Mir could only slice his shot wide of Hugo Lloris near post.
The game then turned ugly when Gonzalo Montiel hacked down Son. Words were exchanged before Son reacted poorly by shoving Montiel resulting in a mass shoving match between the two sides.
Rather amusingly it was Lamela, known to be a wind-up merchant in his Spurs days, who eventually succeeded in diffusing the row.
The second half started with Sevilla in controlled possession. This was until the 50th minute when Rodrigo Bentacur won the ball for Spurs high up the pitch.
He played a smart pass to Son, who beat two mean before setting up Kane for a neat finish to give Spurs a 1-0 lead.
Sevilla did not panic. Their high pressing finally paid off in the 64th minute. Quick two touch football around the 18-yard box allowed Luisimi Cruz to set up Ivan Rakitic for a long range drive that left Lloris with no chance.
Sevilla then had a brilliant chance to take the lead in the 74th minute. Brandon Austin, now in the Spurs goal, played a poor pass into the centre on the pitch.
The ball was quickly played forward to Ivan Romero who luckily pulled his shot wide of the keepers’ right-hand post.
The rest of the game petered out without much incident which left both teams with a satisfying 1-1 draw.
When asked about their time in Korea, Antonio Conte said “We have enjoyed to stay here, we played two friendly games, maybe the first game is a friendly, today was a real game.”
“But for us, in my strategy it is very important to have this type of game in the middle of the work. For me, they were a bit tired. But they have to think, they have to collaborate and build a union. They had a good response in a real game, and Sevilla was a real game.”
Spurs will now return home after a successful tour of Korea. They will travel to Ibrox on Saturday to play Rangers.
LINEUPS: SEVILLA: Dmitrović, Montiel, Carmona, Rekik, Acuña, Jordán, Fernando, Lamela, Gómez, Ocampos, Mir TOTTENHAM: Lloris, Romero, Dier, Sanchez, Lucas, Hojbjerg, Skipp, Sessegnon, Richarlison, Kane, Son
