Poch dress rehearsal ends with a victory
TOTTENHAM warmed up for a season at their temporary Wembley home with a comfortable friendly victory over Juve under the arch.
Harry Kane and Christian Eriksen scored the goals either side of half-time as Mauricio Pochettino’s men won in front of a half-full national stadium crowd.
Spurs full-back Kieran Trippier was on the receiving end of Alex Sandro’s studs early on as the ‘friendly’ started at a high tempo.
And England centre forward Kane broke the deadlock in just the 10th minute after a sweeping move by the home side.
Trippier was involved again, crossing to the back post where Kane nodded down and into the net.
Juventus hit back and Hugo Lloris was forced into a great save.
The visitors won three corners in quick succession and the last of these gave Gonzalo Higuain the chance to level.
But his goal-bound effort was beaten away by the diving Spurs keeper.
Kane then wasted a golden opportunity to double Tottenham’s lead.
After being beaten to the ball in the box by keeper Gianluigi Buffon, Eriksen fired in the loose clearance but Kane failed to connect with the cross.
Trippier then left the field limping after a second fierce challenge of the game from Sandro.
The right-back came out of the collision worse off and suffered a twisted ankle and had to be replaced by replaced by Kyle Walker-Peters.
Seven minutes into the second half, Eriksen got the vital second goal for Spurs.
Dele Alli’s through-ball picked out Eriksen, leaving the Dane with just the keeper to beat and he took the ball away from him before turning a shot into the empty net.
It was almost three when Kane made space in the box but smashed his rising shot against the underside of the bar and Juventus cleared the danger.
Pochettino said: “Today I’m very happy with the performance. We now have one week to work hard and try to arrive in a perfect condition.”
And goalscorer Eriksen added: “We played a very strong game today.
“We’ve been happy with our pre-season and we are in really good shape.”