Wed 22 May 2024, 15:35
Tottenham HotspurAnge Postecoglou was delighted with how the players approached our post-season match against Newcastle United in front of almost 80,000 fans at the famous MCG in Melbourne on Wednesday.
The 1-1 final scoreline and narrow 5-4 loss in a penalty shoot-out don’t tell the full story of a match we dominated - commanding 63% possession and racking up 18 efforts at goal to Newcastle’s four.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t capitalise on those stats, not least in the first half, where we were on the front foot and getting through Newcastle with intricate passing patterns around the box.
Our press worked on numerous occasions as well and that pressure led to our goal on 32 minutes when James Maddison cut out goalkeeper Nick Pope’s clearance, darted into the box, jinked past Emil Krafth and fired into the roof of the net.
Newcastle levelled just before the break when Alexander Isak was on the spot to tap home after Brandon Austin parried Jacob Murphy’s low cross. Dane Scarlett was agonisingly close on two occasions to a winner, but the game ended 1-1 and went to penalties - Bryan Gil’s saved spot-kick proving the difference with the rest of our takers - Dane, Jamie Donley, Tyrese Hall and Oliver Skipp - on target as Toon took it 5-4.
Speaking to the Review Show, Ange told us: “I thought the boys were good and it’s important, because 80,000 people turned up and they come here with the expectation of seeing a Premier League side play and it’s important we delivered that.
“I thought we were outstanding in the first half, football was good, we were working really hard. In the second half, we made a lot of changes, gave the younger boys some experience and, unfortunately, we lost on the penalties.
“The main thing to take out of it is that we are representing one of the biggest clubs in the world, and I’d hate to think that anyone left here thinking that we didn’t take it seriously, and put on a good performance for all the people who came out here tonight, spent their money and like I said, for a lot of them, it’s the only chance they get to see our team play.
“I think we did that, we represented our club really well, that was the most important thing. It was also good for some of the younger boys to get some game time and all in all, I think it was a decent exercise.”
Asked to describe how special it was for someone brought up in Melbourne to play at the MCG, Ange added: “It's pretty special. The stadium’s held Olympic Games, just about every major sporting event’s been through here, and we’ve had some big football matches as well. I was part of a couple of them.
“It’s great to be here tonight. Look, it wasn’t long ago I was on the other side of the fence, sometimes you get disappointed when overseas teams would come and would go through the motions, I just wanted to make sure we didn’t do that. It’s important. You leave a lasting impression, grow your fanbase, and I thought we did that.”
