Preseason friendly: Roma beat Tottenham 1-0

Tottenham Hotspur’s preseason campaign came to a dismal end when they were defeated 1-0 by Roma at the Sammy Offer Stadium in Haifa, Israel.

Jose Mourinho came face-to-face with his previous team and handed them their first loss of the summer thanks to Roger Ibanez’s first-half header that turned out to be the only goal of the friendly.

Antonio Conte fielded a potent lineup, as was to be expected, and the most of those who started against Roma are most likely to do so again in their season opener against Southampton next Saturday. However, Mourinho’s team got off to a fast start and showed every sign of wanting to open the scoring.

Roma’s most recent addition, Paulo Dybala, came very close to a debut goal in the first minute but failed to bury the ball. However, Roma did score just before the halftime break when Ibanez headed in a corner kick. That proved to be the difference as the Mourinho rebuild of the Serie A side continues to yield results.

Focus will now shift to the English Premier League, which Spurs will begin playing in next Saturday when they host Southampton. The Saints also lost 2-1 to Villarreal, but Nigeria’s Joe Aribo introduced himself to the supporters with a polished display that he capped with an outstanding solo goal.