Tottenham Hotspur vs Shakhtar Donetsk

Tottenham Hotspur and ShakhtarDonetsk are set to trade tackles in an exciting summer friendly at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

A 3-2 defeat in an all-London pre-season match-up against West Ham United was hardly a perfect way for new manager Ange Postecoglou to launch his career at Tottenham. But a 5-1 demolition of below-par Singapore Premier League side Lion City Sailors in the follow-up provided some consolation in these tumultuous times for ‘Spurs.’ Faced with the frightening exit of long-serving stalwart Harry Kane, the Londoners will unlikely take the field in high spirits despite an overwhelming desire to win back-to-back games for the first time since February. Postecoglou’s men have only managed three victories in their last ten matches (D1, L6). Adding to Tottenham’s sizeable list of concerns, they kept just one clean sheet on those ten occasions, which explains their decision to shell out a significant figure on the acquisition of Wolfsburg defender Micky van de Ven.

In the meantime, while Ukraine remains a warzone, Shakhtar Donetsk’s Premier League title defense is up and running, though there’s ample room for improvement in Patrick van Leeuwen’s ranks. After a dramatic 2-1 away win over Metalist 1925 in a curtain-raising fixture in late July, the ‘Miners’ slumped to an underwhelming 1-1 draw at Veres-Rivne last time out. The Ukrainians have blown hot and cold in seven games heading into their first encounter against Tottenham in 2009 (W2, D2, L3), casting doubt on their effort to keep their unbeaten two-game H2H record intact (W1, D1). It’s also worth noting they’ve gone seven consecutive road trips without a shutout.