@SpursOfficial
Saturday, August 10, 2024, 7:40 p. m. |Tottenham Hotspur
A brace from Dejan Kulusevski wasn’t enough to save us from a narrow 3-2 defeat against Bayern Munich in the Visit Malta Cup when we finished our pre-season crusade at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday night.
Although our Swedish striker opened the scoring in the first minute, the German visitors took a 3-1 lead at half-time thanks to goals from Dayot Upamecano, Serge Gnabry and Thomas Muller.
Kulusevski scored his third pre-season goal just after the hour to close the gap, but we were unable to equalize and suffered a defeat to Bayern for the second weekend in a row after last Saturday’s 2-1 defeat in Seoul, South Korea .
In the second half of that match, Bayern brought out our two former stars Eric Dier and Harry Kane, whose significant contributions to the Club were recognized before the match by receiving special gifts from the Club’s ambassador, Ledley King. Also, just before the start. , our new signings Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall and Dominic Solanke, whose arrival from Bournemouth was announced today, performed in front of a huge crowd.
We got off to an incredibly fast start and took the lead after just 23 seconds! Brennan Johnson burst down the right, Kulusevski was unable to make his initial cross, but the ball bounced off Joshua Kimmich straight to the Swede and he headed in from six yards. However, the visitors tied in the 16th minute, Guglielmo Vicario first saved a header from Mathys Tel after a free kick from Kimmich, but the rebound fell kindly to Upamecano to take advantage from close range.
Halfway through the half, the game went from start to finish and a third goal seemed likely, both groups created chances, but it went in the visitors’ favor in the 31st minute. Yves Bissouma was trapped on the edge of our area, the Muller’s pass was deflected by Jamal Musiala and ran towards Gnabry, who made his way with his right foot towards the far corner.
Musiala then tested Vicario with a hard shot that the Italian saved, while in the other goal Josip Stanisic stretched his leg to prevent Heung-Min Son from finishing off a dangerous low ball inside the area. Shortly before the break, Müller finished off Raphael Guerreiro’s free kick from the left to beat Vicario and make it 3-1.
Both groups made big changes at half-time (Vicario, Son and Kulusevski were the players we had left) and we scored the first goal of the second half, a shot from an angle by Timo Werner that was saved by Sven Ulreich. We also scored the first goal of the half, cutting the deficit to one when Lucas Bergvall took possession, recovered the ball from Archie Gray before releasing Kulusevski, who calmly returned home from 12 yards.
Kane received a great welcome when he entered the fray with 12 minutes remaining, our all-time leading scorer twice hitting the crossbar from distance in the closing stages, while our most productive chance to tie the game came when young Mikey Moore put in the work. some space inside, but their feeble effort was stored through Ulreich.
Goals: Spurs – Kulusevski 1, 61; FC Bayern – Upamecano 16, Gnabry 31, Müller 44.
Yellow cards: Spurs – Dragusin, Lankshear; FC Bayern – Dier, Coman.
Referee: Chris Kavanagh.
Venue: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Weather: Light clouds, gentle breeze, 24 degrees.
Turnout: 61,084.