{"id":1912,"date":"2026-07-27T13:58:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T05:58:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/?p=1912"},"modified":"2026-07-27T13:58:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T05:58:30","slug":"tottenham-make-winning-start-to-tour-against-auckland-fc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/27\/tottenham-make-winning-start-to-tour-against-auckland-fc\/","title":{"rendered":"Tottenham make winning start to tour against Auckland FC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Despite fielding an under-strength side, Spurs secured a comfortable victory thanks to strikes from Dane Scarlett and Richarlison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spurs coach Roberto De Zerbi rested most of his top players as the English Premier League side dominated a match played in damp conditions in front of a record Eden Park crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 40,112 who packed into New Zealand’s famed rugby ground were the biggest to watch a men’s football match in New Zealand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It surpassed the previous best of 37,034 for a New Zealand World Cup qualifying match against Peru in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were treated to a fast-paced contest, even if both sides were missing several of their best players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tottenham have embarked on an aggressive summer of spending after narrowly avoiding relegation last season, when they finished 17th.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the only notable new signing to take the field was former West Ham midfielder Mateus Fernandes, who scored in the 1-0 win over MK Dons in London on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

De Zerbi said he would ease others into the tour, with Tottenham to play games in Sydney next week against A-League side Sydney FC and London rivals Chelsea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s a chance for the young players,” De Zerbi told TVNZ before kickoff, declaring Brighton signing Jan Paul van Hecke and former Liverpool stalwart Andy Robertson not yet up to speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“After a very long trip, we can’t take a risk with the players who are not ready to play yet.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Record club signing Sandro Tonali wasn’t considered because the former Newcastle United midfielder had suffered an unspecified injury — “one small problem” — before the team left London, De Zerbi added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fernandes entered the game with half an hour remaining and Spurs bagged their second goal shortly afterwards through the work of two other substitutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mathys Tel burst into the box and set up a tap-in for seasoned forward Richarlison, who was omitted from Brazil’s World Cup squad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scarlett, one of several Spurs Academy players in action, opened the scoring in the 12th minute, pouncing after Auckland goalkeeper Michael Woud parried Manor Solomon’s shot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite fielding an under-strength side, Spurs secured a comfortable victory thanks to strikes from Dane Scarlett and Richarlison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1912"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1914,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1912\/revisions\/1914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}