Tottenham 2-3 West Ham: Ange Postecoglou loses first Spurs game as Hammers win pre-season thriller.

New Spurs head coach Ange Postecoglou suffers defeat in first game in charge; Tottenham beaten 3-2 by London rivals West Ham in pre-season friendly in Perth, Australia; Hammers substitute Gianluca Scamacca scores winner after Spurs came back from 2-0 down to level.

Ange Postecoglou suffered defeat in his first game in charge of Tottenham as West Ham won a pre-season friendly thriller 3-2 in Australia.

Gianluca Scamacca scored a 78th-minute winner after Spurs had fought back from 2-0 down to draw level seven minutes earlier.

Despite the defeat, Postecoglou would have been encouraged by his side’s attacking display after Tottenham had 30 shots and 71 per cent possession.

But defensive errors allowed West Ham to score with three of their four shots on target in Perth.

The Hammers took a 2-0 half-time lead thanks to two headers in the space of five minutes as Danny Ings nodded home in the 18th minute before Divin Mubama glanced in.

Postecoglou changed the entire Spurs XI for the second half as Harry Kane, who captained the side amid strong interest from Bayern Munich, came off at the interval, along with new signings Guglielmo Vicario, James Maddison and Manor Solomon.

Spurs finally found the net in the 68th minute as Giovani Lo Celso hammered a low, close-range volley beyond Lukasz Fabianski.

Three minutes later Spurs equalised when Destiny Udogie glanced in Ivan Perisic’s corner for his first Spurs goal.

But substitute Scamacca nicked the win for the Irons with a cool one-on-one finish to ensure David Moyes’ side remain 100 per cent in pre-season after a third straight win.

Yeah, yeah – we know that Spurs 2-3 West Ham was a friendly that means absolutely nothing.

BUT… we analysed it, so here’s the post-match data. pic.twitter.com/FLfWjAvYql

— Opta Analyst (@OptaAnalyst) July 18, 2023

Ange: Goals conceded partly on me

Spurs head coach Ange Postecoglou said in his post-match press conference:

 

Gaffer. pic.twitter.com/EFHYFgwttA

— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) July 18, 2023

“The goals we conceded are partly on me – we haven’t really done a lot of work on those kind of defensive areas and structures around set-pieces and stuff. I can’t expect the guys to take on board everything.

“I thought for the most part defensively the pressure was really good and we didn’t allow them too many chances. But we don’t want to be conceding goals with them producing just a small number of chances.

“But that’s not the sort of stuff we worked on. There are still things in our structure where we could have moved the ball quicker but guys aren’t exactly in the positions they need to be. And there’s a few things we need to keep developing, as is only natural as they get fitter to play this kind of football.

“We’re still very much in the early stages. At the same time we only have three or so weeks to get it right for the first game so we’ve got to keep working hard.”

Moyes: We were fortunate not to concede more

West Ham boss David Moyes said in his post-match press conference:

“I don’t need to give Ange any advice, that’s for sure.

“I just thought his team played well enough that they could’ve easily scored more goals and we were a bit fortunate we didn’t conceded more, but we also defended very well and our goalkeeper played well.

“I’ve come across Ange a few times and what he did at Celtic was remarkable. How his teams play is a very good style and you saw bits of that tonight.”

Tottenham’s pre-season results and fixtures

• July 18: Tottenham 2-3 West Ham
• July 23: Leicester vs Tottenham, kick-off 11am (Rajamangala Stadium, Thailand)
• July 26: Tottenham vs Lion City Sailors, kick-off 12.30pm (National Stadium, Singapore)
• August 6: Tottenham vs Shakhtar, kick-off 2pm (Tottenham Hotspur Stadium)
• August 8: Barcelona vs Tottenham, kick-off 8pm (Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys, Spain)

West Ham’s pre-season results and fixtures

 

Three goals from the three strikers ⚽️⚽️⚽️ pic.twitter.com/GFj7bM7rJm

— West Ham United (@WestHam) July 18, 2023

• July 10: Boreham Wood 1-4 West Ham
• July 15: West Ham 6-2 Perth Glory
• July 18: Tottenham 2-3 West Ham
• July 22: Dagenham and Redbridge vs West Ham, kick-off 3pm (Chigwell Construction Stadium)
• July 29: Rennes vs West Ham, kick-off 5pm (Roazhon Park, France)
• August 5: Bayer Leverkusen vs West Ham, kick-off 12.30pm (BayArena, Germany)

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