Richarlison: "I think it’s going to be a good season for me"
Brazilian duo Richarlison and Emerson Royal were both in a jubilant mood after our 5-1 victory over Lion City Sailors on Wednesday.
Richarlison was in a jubilant mood after scoring a hat-trick in our 5-1 victory over Lion City Sailors to conclude our Asia-Pacific Tour in style on Wednesday.
The Brazil international was introduced at the break as Ange Postecoglou made wholesale changes to the starting line-up, and stole the show with two goals in seven minutes shortly after half-time before rounding off an impressive night with his third deep into second-half stoppage time.
Harry Kane’s penalty on the stroke of half-time had cancelled out Shawal Anuar’s opener after 14 minutes and Giovani Lo Celso added our fourth on 73 minutes, but it was the 26-year-old who starred in the Singapore National Stadium as the versatile forward bids to make an impact this season.
"I'm over the moon, so happy!" he told SPURSPLAY afterwards. "Thank you to our fans and thank you Singapore for this pre-season. I like Singapore and this pre-season is good for me and the group.
"I feel good. Last season I had too many injuries but now my body is good. I think it’s going to be a good season for me."
Richy led the line well and looked sharp against Lion City, twice instinctively pouncing on loose balls in the box to open his pre-season account before latching onto Emerson Royal’s flick and showing great composure to finish his third to leave with the match ball.
It was a positive sign of things to come from the former Everton man, with his Brazil team-mate Emerson quick to heap praise on his fellow countryman and also enjoying his involvement in our fifth goal with an assist.
"This guy is amazing!" said Emerson. "I speak every time about Richy because he deserves the goals and that is very good for him. In that third goal, I passed to him so I’m so happy."
With focus now shifting to our final two pre-season friendlies against Shakhtar Donetsk and FC Barcelona, our number 12 recognises the importance of working hard in this period ahead of the season as the team bids to return to Europe.
"Pre-season is very important for us, we need to push. We need to get back to Europe because we have the team for this - we will try this season. We have three more weeks so we need to push a little bit more ahead of the season."