MY ACCOUNT
A number of Premier League sides were in pre-season action, with Tottenham’s draw against Sevilla among the most high-profile games.
Leicester, too, were held in a six-goal thriller against OH Leuven. It was an inauspicious day for English top-flight sides, with only three of the nine who played claiming victory.
Tottenham 1-1 Sevilla
Tottenham were held 1-1 by Sevilla in their second pre-season of the season in South Korea.
Neither side was able to break the deadlock before half-time, but the introductions of Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski at the break saw a marked improvement in Antonio Conte’s men.
Spurs captialised as Harry Kane netted the opener five minutes into the second half but Ivan Rakitic levelled the scores just 13 minutes later with a superb strike.
Richarlison made his first appearance since signing from Everton but failed to get on the scoresheet in a stop-start showing.
Conte suggested that this contest was a more fruitful encounter than Spurs’ first outing — a 6-3 victory over a K-League XI.
He said: “This week in Korea I am very happy because we worked a lot and at the same time we enjoyed and played two friendlies.
“I think the first game was friendly and this one was a real game.”
OH Leuven 3-3 Leicester
Leicester’s inauspicious start to pre-season continued as they drew 3-3 with sister club OH Leuven.
The Foxes were 2-0 down after just 12 minutes, conceding inside the first 60 seconds, and were unable to halve the deficit before the break.
By the hour mark however Leicester were on level terms with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Patson Daka striking in the space of eight minutes.
It looked as though Brendan Rodgers’ side had slumped to a second defeat in as many games when Mykola Kukharevych put OH Leuven ahead in the first minute of stoppage time.
Leicester salvaged a draw in the game’s dying embers though as Jamie Vardy struck after 12 minutes of added time to make it 3-3.
Rodgers explained his side’s failure to claim victory in a second successive game by pointing to their lack of fitness.
He said: “They need a day to recover, it’s been long days and long nights because we’ve been doing a lot of work in the evening with the players.
“They get back, recover, but we’ve got to keep pushing, it’s just week by week, building up the fitness and then obviously, technically, the players improve even more as they get fitter.
“It’s the one thing when you’re not quite at your fitness level, technically you sometimes see misplaced passes and whatnot.
“We’ll keep working on our fitness and lots to work on tactically.”
Other results
Reading 1-1 West Ham
RB Leipzig 3-1 Southampton
Crystal Palace 4-2 Ipswich
Brighton 4-1 Estoril
Nice 0-2 Fulham
Stuttgart 2-1 Brentford
Barnsley 0-0 Nottingham Forest
