Hong Kong fans savour Tottenham victory over Arsenal on record-breaking night
Pape Matar Sarr’s spectacular strike settles first North London derby played outside UK, as 49,975 pack into Kai Tak Stadium
Tottenham Hotspur beat Arsenal 1-0 in a barnstorming contest in front of a febrile and record-breaking crowd in Hong Kong on Thursday night.
Pape Matar Sarr scored a fabulous winning goal befitting the first North London derby played outside the UK. After 45 minutes, he stole the ball from Myles Lewis-Skelly in the middle of the pitch, spied David Raya stranded out of his goal and flighted a picture-perfect 45-yard finish over the helpless keeper.
If Sarr gained points with Spurs fans for the goal, he earned a few more with his celebration in front of the Arsenal loyalists filling the North Stand.
Arsenal fans also formed the majority of the 49,975 that represented Kai Tak Stadium’s biggest sporting attendance yet, beating by 271 the number who saw Hong Kong Football Festival’s other match, between Liverpool and AC Milan last Saturday.
“It was an unbelievable goal, fantastic, well taken,” Thomas Frank, the Tottenham manager, said. “All credit to Pape, he’s impressed me.”
While Frank reflected on a night that delivered “the positive result and performance we wanted”, opposite number Mikel Arteta set aside the defeat to “thank [Hong Kong] for the welcome”. “We had very clear objectives,” he said. “To keep developing our preparation and maximising every day to get to a really high level.