| Match report
Two strong Premier League
starting XIs took to the field of the Nissan Stadium in Sunny
Nashville for a friendly meeting in an unusual setting.
Both sides have had mixed
fortunes in this International Champions Cup 'competition', but
despite Tottenham looking sharp in the first five minutes, it was
Manchester City who took the lead after ten minutes. Ederson
had to be quick out to Dele Alli, when Trippier's cross found him at
the far post.
When the goal did come, it
was Stones on the end of a ball in from Debruyne's free-kick that
flew up off the wall. It was a soft goal to concede and
Pochettino will not have been happy about that, friendly or not.
City should have gone
further ahead when Gabriel missed a clear chance when he headed off
target, then smashed a shot from the edge of the area straight at
Lloris and then Sterling was released down the right by Walker, but
his final ball ended up in the side netting, with it neither being a
cross or a shot. But they continued to press onto the
Tottenham defence, with Danilo trying to beat Hugo at his near post,
but being denied by a low stop.
Spurs looked to be playing
the long ball up to Kane and another example of the injudicious
officiating by the American officials saw Stones get away with
nothing more than a free-kick given against him for wrestling Kane
to the floor. It was the same when Kompany went through Dele
from the back and the Spurs midfielder's reaction showed his
disapproval of the tackle by the Belgian centre-half. The
Spurs element in the crowd were showing their disapproval of Kyle
Walker's appearance in a light blue shirt, with massive boos
whenever he got on the ball.
From the free-kick for
Kompany's foul, Eriksen struck a fine effort from over 25 yards that
brought a save out of Ederson, diving to his right to push the ball
out. At the other end, Lloris was stopping Spurs going under,
as he made sharp saves to efforts from Gabriel and Danilo, before
Gabriel missed a sitter by slicing Debruyne's ball so wide it almost
went for a throw-in.
With City enjoying the bulk
of the play, Spurs had been confined to their own half, but Eriksen
put Harry through and while his shot beat Ederson, it also ended up
being a few feet too high, as it sailed over the bar. It would
have been unjust, as City had looked to be first to every ball and
then made ground quickly to get at Spurs, especially down our left.
Luckily, there was a lack of a clinical finisher on the end of the
chances they created, but Aguero was waiting on the bench and when
Spurs turned around at 0-1, Pochettino must have been very
relieved.
At half-time, Vorm came on
for Lloris, but was no less busy. City were finding ways
through the Tottenham midfield to launch attacks, but Danilo was
embarrassing when he went down easily looking for a penalty.
Spurs had felt hard done by with some of the City challenges, with
Dier involved in a spat with Debruyne and then Alli looked to be a
bit late as he dived into a tackle.
The number of crosses that
fizzed across the Spurs box was a little worrying, luckily there
were no light blue shirts on the end of them. Vorm made his
first save on 65 minutes when Danilo created a chance for Aguero and
the keeper made a low stop to keep out the Man City striker.
Aguero went closer straight away when his shot hit the bottom of the
post and then defenders blocked Nasri and Aguero. Aguero
struck the post again, when he cut into the box past Alderweireld
and hit a shot from about 12 yards out, latching onto the long
clearance upfield by Ederson.
When Raheem Sterling was
played through on goal, he kept calm and rolled the ball past Vorm
into the bottom corner of the net with 72 minutes gone to add a goal
that had been coming for a while. The goal was followed by a
rash of substitutions and the game opened up a bit allowing Spurs to
get forward. Janssen forced Ederson into a save with a
snapshot, while Alderweireld fired over from a corner and Eriksen
tested sub keeper Muric with a shot from outside the box that had to
be pushed away. With a minute left, Spurs had their best
chance through Janssen. The Dutchman took Davies' pass,
flicked it over Muric and as he was about to volley it in, the
keeper got back to knock the ball away with a good recovery.
Ironically, Spurs went 3-0
behind in added time, when a scramble that saw three efforts blocked
ended with substitute Diaz slotting home from close range.
The opposition deserved
their win and were more determined than Spurs, showing a physical
side which might be a new addition to Guardiola's approach to the
Premier League season. Having been defensively weak last
season and having added expensively to the back line, players all
over the pitch were happy to go through players and shirt-pull to
prevent any forward movement by Tottenham. not that we were
functioning as we can. With few opportunities to sharpen
things up, the side need to be ready for the season opener at
Newcastle, with a fast start to the season required.
Gareth from
Southgate |
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