A SECOND-HALF Harry Kane double denied Rangers their second result against Premier League opposition in the space of five days in their final pre-season friendly at Ibrox this afternoon.
Antonio Colak put Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side in front against Spurs with his first goal since his £1.8m transfer from PAOK in Greece earlier this month in the first-half.
However, Antonio Conte’s men, who finished fourth in the top flight down south last season and will feature in the Champions League group stages this term, triumphed thanks to Kane’s brace.
The two teams played for the Walter Tull Memorial Cup, the trophy named after the former Rangers and Spurs midfielder who was one of the first black footballers in the British game, and Jermain Defoe presented it to Hugo Lloris after the final whistle.
Rangers, who beat West Ham 3-1 in Govan on Tuesday night, take on Livingston away in their cinch Premiership opener a week today.
The Europa League finalists, though, will go into their first competitive match of the 2022/23 campaign with confidence after giving a good account of themselves against Spurs.
Van Bronckhorst freshened up his starting line-up by bringing in Allan McGregor in goals and Tom Lawrence and Rabbi Matondo in midfield and dropping Jon McLaughlin, Ryan Jack and Scott Wright to the bench.
Ben Davies, who joined from Liverpool in a £4m deal on Tuesday, was absent from the match day squad, but Malik Tillman, the Bayern Munich loanee, came on with 20 minutes remaining to make his debut.
When Kane sent Dejan Kulusevski through on the Rangers goal with a defence-splitting through ball from deep in the fifth minute it was an early indication of the quality the visitors’ possessed within their ranks.
McGregor kept the scoreline level when he diverted the Juventus loanee’s attempt out for a corner with his outstretched left leg.
The home side recovered well from that scare and were soon applying pressure of their own at the other end of the park. James Tavernier fired a dipping free-kick just over the crossbar after Ryan Kent had been brought down on the edge of the penalty box.
Van Bronckhorst’s charges grew in confidence as proceedings progressed and they were cheers from the 43,036-strong crowd as Glen Kamara skinned Eric Dyer in the middle of the park, Matondo flicked the ball over the head of Ryan Sessegnon and John Souttar made a powerful run upfield.
Rangers nearly took the lead when Tavernier, Lawrence and Matondo combined well down the right flank. The latter crossed to Colak in the six yard box only for Spurs goalkeeper Lloris to intercept the delivery.
But the home support did not need to wait long to have a goal to celebrate. Colak broke the deadlock in the 24th minute after Matondo raced past Cristian Romero and Sessegnon and squared into the area. Tavernier backed heeled it on and his new team mate made no mistake.
The Croatian forward has looked decent in his outings for the Glasgow club against Sunderland, Blackpool and West Ham. But getting on the scoresheet against such formidable rivals, even in a friendly, will increase his self-belief.
Falling behind provoked a response from Spurs. The hosts had McGregor to thank for keeping them ahead. The veteran produced three outstanding saves from Kulusevski, Dyer and then Kane before half-time.
The 40-year-old, who signed a one year extension to his contract in June, clearly has much to offer in the coming months despite suggestions that McLaughlin may be preferred to him.
Conte put on Lucas Moura and Yves Bissouma at the start of the second-half. McGregor denied Sessegnon straight away after the left back had cut inside.
But he was helpless to keep out the shot that Kane whipped into the top right corner in the 50th minute and could do nothing about the volley the England captain rifled beyond him six minutes later.
Fraser Forster, the former Celtic goalkeeper, replaced Lloris with 20 minutes remaining to a chorus of boos from the Rangers fans, but it was the Spurs supporters who were cheering at the final whistle.
