SEOUL: Homecoming hero Son Heung-min scored a brace of goals as Tottenham Hotspur defeated a K-League All Stars team 4-3 in a preseason match in Seoul on Wednesday. Dejan Kulusevski opened the scoring for Spurs in the 29th minute before Son, captain of both the Premier League side and the South Korean national team, went to work.
He cut in from the left wing and found the top right corner of the net with a curling effort from the edge of the box in the 38th minute. He then teamed up with Kulusevski in stoppage time before the break to calmly score again in the bottom corner to give Spurs a 3-0 lead.
The local team returned with an entirely new lineup for the second half to replace a starting XI that had been voted in by fans. Emerson Royal found the woodwork with a header and Stanislav Iljutcenko then put the K-League team on the board in the 52nd minute, slotting the ball home after Spurs keeper Brandon Austin was unable to hold an initial shot by Jeong Jae-hee.
Iljutcenko got his second goal two minutes later with a diving header off a Jeong cross. After mass substitutions by Spurs, Will Lankshear put the Premier League side two goals in front in the 66th minute, volleying home a cross by Timo Werner.
The K-League team responded in the 81st minute, when Oberdan hit a first-time volley after Austin punched a corner right to the Brazilian midfielder. Spurs hung on for the narrow win, with James Maddison striking the left post during stoppage time.
Yang Min-hyeok, the South Korean teenager signed by Spurs on Sunday, started for the Korean side but did not make much of an impression. He is currently playing for Gangwon FC in the K-League and will join Spurs in January. Spurs face Bayern Munich in Seoul on Saturday. — AFP