That was fun! Tottenham Hotspur scored four second half goals and got a brace from Harry Kane en route to a 6-1 demolition of Inter Milan in Oslo, Norway. The match was the final friendly of Tottenham’s preseason before Spurs open the Premier League season at Everton next Saturday.
Spurs started with a strong lineup, but with a few surprises. Harry Kane, Eric Dier, Dele Alli, Danny Rose, Toby Alderweireld, and Kyle Walker all started the match for the first time in this preseason, but Michel Vorm started the match in place of Hugo Lloris. Ryan Mason was in the pivot beside Dier after news broke that Mousa Dembele was to miss the match due to illness. Cameron Carter-Vickers started alongside Alderweireld in the heart of Tottenham’s back line.
Tottenham opened the match looking rusty, but progressive, and was rewarded in the fourth minute with a dubious penalty. Kyle Walker fell down in the box, and the official pointed at the spot, but it was a very soft penalty. Harry Kane fired home the penalty kick to give Spurs the early lead.
Inter settled into the match soon after and it was an even affair for much of the first half. Ever Banega fired a good looking shot that went just over the bar, and Inter started looking dangerous. Ivan Perisic equalized in the 23rd minute off of an assist from Banega; he beat Kyle Walker and put a lovely ball past Vorm that Cameron Carter-Vickers couldn’t quite get to.
That was the high water mark for Inter, though. Six minutes before halftime, Erik Lamela scored a lovely left-footed ball in the top corner past Handanovic, after some fantastic passing around the box by Dier and Alli. Spurs went into the break leading, deservedly, 2-1.
Spurs made several substitutions at halftime, bringing in Hugo Lloris for Vorm, Kieran Trippier for Kyle Walker, Ben Davies for Danny Rose, Harry Winks for Ryan Mason, and Vincent Janssen for Christian Eriksen. Janssen was the tip of the spear for Spurs, while Harry Kane dropped into the #10 role vacated by Eriksen.
After that, it was all Tottenham, who scored three goals in 15 minutes to put Inter away. Dele Alli opened the scoring six minutes from the whistle after playing some 1-2 football with Janssen, Harry Kane got his brace in the 56th minute with a gorgeous ball on a break from a Erik Lamela assist, and Janssen got his first (publicly viewable) friendly goal for Tottenham after latching on to a Dele Alli through ball in the box.
Spurs took their foot off the gas after that, but still got a victory cigar goal from youngster Shayon Harrison, his first senior goal for the club, to make it 6-1.
It was a phenomenal all-around team performance, and Spurs should feel enormously confident heading into next Saturday’s EPL season opener at Everton.
Observations:
- This is a tough match for me to really analyze because I only really half-watched it, despite doing Twitter duty. It’s hard to get a decent analysis when you’re also working at the day job. I want to watch it again, though.
- Cameron Carter-Vickers isn’t quite ready. He got a really good audition playing beside Toby Alderweireld, and he was... fine, I guess, but he looked a little outmatched and outmuscled at times throughout the match. This is not a criticism. He’s 18. That’s a good performance in central defense for an 18-year old. But if we’re having to play him in the league, then a) something has gone catastrophically wrong with our season, and b) I’m worried.
- However, Harry Winks? I think he is ready. He was very good in his second half stint again, his third consecutive solid performance in midfield this preseason. He was once again a clear upgrade to Ryan Mason. I think Harry Winks is what we all wanted and expected Mason to be, only younger. And probably better.
- I’m not going to crap on Mason, who wasn’t abjectly terrible. He got into good positions today with forward runs, but his finishing let him down. He looks like he’s our fourth CM at present, which is fine, and about right, I’d say.
- Janssen continues to impress me with his hold-up play. He combined very well with Dele Alli in the second half and each one got a goal by helping the other one. Is Eric Dier getting jealous of their emerging relationship? Also, the man did some WORK to set up Shayon Harrison. Impressive outing from our new signing.
- Harry Kane. Ba gawd, he’s still good. :heart_emoji:
- Erik Lamela continues to do all the good things that he did for Spurs last season in midfield, only now it appears he’s flicked the GOAL SCORING switch on his robotic chassis. He was amazing for Spurs last season. Now imagine him now that he’s figured out how to score goals, too!
- Kyle Walker looked like he was still recovering from the trauma of having to play for England.