It all started with a 1-1 draw against Inter back in August, 2019 and the first nine friendlies have had a bit of everything - penalty shoot-outs, goals, no fans due to COVID restrictions up to 61,000 for the last pre-season action in N17 against Bayern Munich for the Visit Malta Cup in 2024.
Spurs 1-1 Inter
(Inter won 4-3 on penalties)
Our first pre-season match at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium ended with another first - a penalty shoot-out. Lucas Moura opened the scoring against the Italians after just three minutes of this International Champions Cup (ICC) match encounter, levelled by Stefano Sensi on 36 minutes. Heung-Min Son, Georges-Kevin Nkoudou and Toby Alderweireld scored in the shoot-out, but Christian Eriksen and Oliver Skipp were denied by Samir Handanovic as Inter took it 4-3.
Spurs 1-2 Norwich City
Behind-closed-doors
With the country in lockdown during COVID, football returned in June, 2020 to complete the disrupted 2019/20 campaign. We kicked-off with what was essentially a training friendly against Norwich City on 12 June, ahead of our Premier League return against Manchester United on 19 June - the first of nine matches to complete the season. We played four quarters of 30 minutes against the Canaries, who came out on top 2-1 thanks to late goals from Josip Drmic and Mario Vrancic, cancelling out Erik Lamela's diving header.
Spurs 3-0 Ipswich Town
Behind-closed-doors
The delayed 2020/21 campaign kicked-off on 13 September. With no pre-season tours possible due to COVID, we arranged three behind-closed-doors friendlies at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to prepare for our Premier League opener at home against Everton. First up, Ipswich Town and a comfortable win thanks to an early strike from Ryan Sessegnon and double from Heung-Min Son. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Joe Hart made their first appearances.
Spurs 4-1 Reading
Behind-closed-doors
Another early goal, this time an own goal, laid the foundations for another comfortable win. Fine finishes from Dele and Heung-Min Son extended the lead to 3-0 by half-time before Erik Lamela's free-kick made it four seven minutes into the second half. George Puscas netted a late consolation for Reading.
Spurs 1-0 Birmingham City
Behind-closed-doors
Steven Bergwijn's late strike made it three out of three in our pre-season preparations for the 2020/21 campaign. The Dutch winger drilled home from the edge of the box in the 89th minute after what had been a tough examination against City.
Spurs 1-0 Arsenal
A match noted for a show of unity as much as the result as Arsenal's Bukayo Saka received a warm round of applause from our supporters as he came off the bench for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang - a show of solidarity against the racism and discrimination the winger had suffered after the delayed Euro 2020, played in the summer of 2021. Heung-Min Son won this NLD on 79 minutes, receiving Gio Lo Celso's pass before firing home from 10 yards.
Spurs 1-1 OGC Nice
The 2022 World Cup split the 2022/23 in half with the tournament from 20 November-18 December - won by Cuti Romero and Argentina. The Premier League resumed on Boxing Day - we travelled to Brentford - and that meant a couple of 'pre-season' preparation matches. We beat Motherwell 4-0 in a training ground friendly before facing Ligue 1 side OGC Nice in our first match at the stadium in six weeks. Five returning World Cup players featured as Matt Doherty put us ahead from Deki Kulusevski's pass on 20 minutes, only for Nice to reply via Antoine Mendy two minutes into the second half.
Spurs 5-1 Shakhtar Donetsk
Ange Postecoglou's first home game in charge also marked an end of an era - it turned out to be Harry Kane's final game in a Spurs shirt - 280 goals and 435 appearances after his debut against Hearts in 2011. Of course, he'd go out in typical Kane style with four goals before his move to Bayern Munich. Dane Scarlett also got in on the act, with Kevin Kelsy replying in a match played as a dedication to the people of Ukraine, with the Club raising funds for Shakhtar’s charitable foundation, Shakhtar Social.
Spurs 2-3 Bayern Munich
A year later and Harry was back, this time as a Bayern Munich player in the second of back-to-back pre-season matches against the Bundesliga giants. In fact, Harry was joined by Eric Dier - 10 years a Spur - in the Bayern line up and their significant contributions to the Club were recognised before the game as they received special gifts from Club Ambassador Ledley King. On the pitch, Deki Kulusevski struck inside a minute but goals from Dayot Upamecano, Serge Gnabry and Thomas Muller put the Germans 3-1 up before Deki's second goal on the hour as it stayed 3-2 in front of 61,084 - our highest attendance for a pre-season match at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.