Spurs 5-1 Shakhtar Donetsk

Football returned to N17 for 2023/24 in some style as we defeated Ukrainian outfit Shakhtar Donetsk 5-1 in our pre-season friendly on Sunday afternoon.

New Head Coach Ange Postecoglou took charge of the team for the first time at home following our Asia-Pacific Tour and watched on as Harry Kane delighted our home faithful with our first four goals, before young striker Dane Scarlett smashed home our fifth with the last kick of the game. Kevin Kelsy had earlier levelled for the visitors on the stroke of half-time.

The match was played as a dedication to the people of Ukraine, with the Club raising funds for Shakhtar’s charitable foundation, Shakhtar Social, in support of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Ukraine as a result of the armed conflict with Russia – and an impressive 56,331 turned up to support the cause and watch us back in action in N17.

Our new boss handed home debuts to Guglielmo Vicario, James Maddison and Destiny Udogie, who all started, and Manor Solomon, who came off the bench late on.

We almost opened the scoring on three minutes but Andrii Piatov saved from Kane and Emerson Royal’s follow-up from close range flicked off Mykola Matviienko and over the bar.

There was a touching moment in the 17^th minute as Piatov – who played 482 times for Shakhtar, featuring in both UEFA Cup matches against us in 2009 and who recently joined Shakhtar’s coaching staff – was given a guard of honour by his team-mates as he left the field on his last-ever appearance for his club.

Intricate play in the area from Spurs almost brought about the opener but Udogie’s ball across the six-yard box was cleared away, while substitute goalkeeper Dmytro Riznyk tipped over Pape Matar Sarr’s drive as we cranked up the pressure. That finally told on 38 minutes after Maddison was brought down by Eduard Kozik in the area and up stepped Kane to drill the penalty right-footed to the goalkeeper’s left.

The 14-time Ukrainian champions levelled on the stroke of half-time, Danylo Sikan floating in a cross from the left and Kelsy headed home from eight yards out but just five minutes after the restart, we were back in front. Maddison delivered the centre and Kane headed back across goal to beat the despairing dive of Riznyk. And Kane completed his hat-trick five minutes later, receiving a pass from Dejan Kulusevski and sliding the ball home with typical efficiency.

The chances kept coming as we dictated the game, Udogie lashing over, Maddison having a curling effort saved and Kulusevski’s drive kept out by Riznyk at his near post, although Shakhtar had a great chance of their own 12 minutes from time but Bohdan Viunnyk dragged wide when through on goal.

But we added to our tally moments later when Solomon’s right-foot curler was parried by Riznyk and Kane tapped home from close range. That was only the second time he’s hit four goals in a game in his Spurs career following his quartet in the 6-1 win over Leicester City in May, 2017.

At the other end, Vicario made a fantastic save to tip over from Newerton while the final action of an entertaining contest saw Scarlett hit home a left-foot shot on the turn to round off an excellent afternoon’s work.