Tottenham concluded their pre-season preparations in disappointing fashion as they fell to a 1-0 defeat against Roma.
Roger Ibanez’s first-half header proved to be the difference in Israel as Jose Mourinho came up against his former side, Spurs suffering their first defeat of the summer.
Attention now turns to the serious business, when Tottenham welcome Southampton to north London to get their Premier League campaign up and running next Saturday.
It was a strong lineup as expected from Antonio Conte, with the majority of those starting against Roma likely to do the same next weekend.
Mourinho’s side started quickly though and very nearly took the lead through new signing Paulo Dybala inside the opening minute. The goal did come for Roma, just before the half hour mark, as Ibanez powered home a header from a corner.
Harry Kane had a strike ruled out for offside before Ivan Perisic and Heung-min Son were wayward with their efforts from range, as Spurs went into the break behind.
There was very little flow to proceedings in the second-half, with a number of substitutions and water breaks ensuring it was a stop-start affair.
Cristian Romero threw himself into a brilliant challenge to deny Nicolo Zaniolo, who has been linked with a move to Tottenham, from getting a shot away when he looked to be clean through.
Frustrations boiled over late on, as Romero showed no interest in treating it as a friendly and regularly got himself into confrontations with the Roma players, while Kane’s appeals for a penalty were waved away and the striker then missed one final chance to equalise as he sent a free header over the bar from six yards out.
