Having played friendlies in Auckland, Sydney and at Hotspur Way this pre-season, it was back to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for the first time since May, as Moore’s second-half brace added to Richarlison’s opener 10 minutes before half-time.
The game saw the first appearance in Lilywhite for Marcos Senesi following his summer arrivals, while he was joined by Andy Robertson, Jan Paul van Hecke and Sandro Tonali in making their first appearances in N17 as Spurs players.
An excellent crowd of almost 55,000 turned up in the steamy north London heat and were almost treated to an early goal only for dangerous crosses from Moore and Robertson to be well defended by the visitors. Hoffenheim created a couple of early chances after a quarter-of-an-hour, Nathan De Cat slipping in a pass to Adam Hlozek who lashed over the bar with his angled drive. And just a minute later, Hlozek was allowed to advance a long way unchecked before unleashing a right-footed effort that clipped off the top of the crossbar.
We forced Oliver Baumann into his first real save of note in the 25th minute and a good stop it was too, diving to his left to tip Lucas Bergvall’s 25-yard shot around the post after the Sweden international made a superb break from deep with the ball.
Just moments later, we so nearly took the lead following more excellent play from Moore, who worked the space before delivering a teasing low cross which both Richarlison and the impressive Mathys Tel just couldn’t reach on the stretch at the back post.
The pressure was building and it eventually told 10 minutes before the break as we went ahead with a well-worked goal. Tonali started it with a burst through midfield, he laid out wide left to Robertson who sent over the perfect cross for Richarlison and he slammed home with a first-time shot 15 yards out. There was still time for a couple of Hoffenheim chances before the break, Adam Daghim testing Antonin Kinsky with a fierce drive while Wouter Burger sent a header just past the post from a Vladimir Coufal cross but we held our lead going into the interval.
The Bundesliga side changed all 10 outfield players for the second half and started brightly with two good chances in the 51st minute. First, Patrick Wimmer had a shot which Kinsky saved low down to his right before Mats Rots curled just wide from the edge of the area. We almost doubled our lead in the 58th minute when Tel threaded a lovely ball in between the Hoffenheim defence for Richarlison who fired over, but it was 2-0 a minute later. Tel did well again down the left, skipping past a couple of challenges and drilling low and hard into the box, with Moore getting ahead of his defender to poke home from close range.
Kinsky was called into action again in the 72nd minute, blocking Max Moerstedt’s shot from the angle at his near post while, at the other end, Tel continued to produce moments of magic, the second of which ended in another goal for Moore. Firstly, the French forward went on a run which ended with his shot saved by Baumann before weaving his way into the area again and picking out Moore, who beat the Hoffenheim keeper with a lovely finish into the bottom corner for 3-0 with 10 minutes left.
With the two sides meeting again on Sunday at Hotspur Way, most of our players lasted the full 90 minutes although Tyrese Hall, Malachi Hardy, Reiss Elliott-Parris, Miracle Adewole and Jamie Donley did get a few minutes at the end as we saw the game out to maintain our unbeaten record in pre-season this summer.
Line-ups
Spurs (4-3-3): Kinsky, Gray (c), van Hecke, Senesi (Hardy 81), Robertson, Bergvall (Donley 87), Tonali, Gallagher (Tyrese Hall 81), Moore (Adewole 81), Richarlison (Elliott-Parris 81), Tel. Substitutes (not used): Substitutes (not used): Austin, Takai, Byrne.
Hoffenheim (4-4-2): Baumann (c), Coufal (Gendrey 46), Kabak (Hranac 46), Hajdari ((Spranger 46), Bernardo (Machida 46 (Chaves 65)), De Cat (Abraha 46), Burger (Conte 46), Avdullahu (Lenz 46), Daghim (Wimmer 46), Hlozek (Rots 46), Lemperle (Moerstedt 46). Substitutes (not used): Philipp, Biedermann, Vogt, Honajzer.
Match data
Goals: Spurs – Richarlison 35, Moore 59, 80.
Referee: Stuart Attwell.
Venue: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Weather: Sunny spells, light winds, 25 degrees.
Attendance: 54,345.