Sydney Morning Herald

There it is - the opening goal, and a lovely one too.

It’s Pedro Porro who delivers the goods. That move began with a one-two on the left involving Son Heung-min and James Maddison. The latter crosses into the box and Porro is there with the header to guide it home.

Simple, effective, beautiful. And you can hear the travelling Spurs fans singing Ange Postecoglou’s name. How good.

Leicester City 0-1 Tottenham Hotspur, 30 minutes

It’s been more of the same for the last 10 minutes or so - as commentator Martin Tyler has just said, Leicester have barely laid a glove on Spurs. But the longer they go without conceding, the more confident they’ll feel. Now they have a set piece just in front of goal… dealt with easily by Tottenham.

Leicester City 0-0 Tottenham Hotspur, 21 minutes

Another close shave from the second phase of another corner - Cristian Romero gets his head on it but it goes just wide of the far post. Leicester are very much under the kosh. Some great positive signs by Spurs early on here.

Leicester City 0-0 Tottenham Hotspur, 12 minutes

Solanke! It wouldn’t have counted as he was offside but he latched onto a cross from Son Heung-min and didn’t quite make the right connection with it, his header meek and straight to the goalkeeper. For his sake, that’s hopefully a case of some cobwebs being blown out, both positionally and with his attempt. Tottenham are continuing to build pressure.

Leicester City 0-0 Tottenham Hotspur, 9 minutes

Good, positive start by Spurs - lots of possession and lots of probing, with the Foxes content to sit back and play it long when they do go forward. They’ve had two corners already, too, and the second one was flicked on at the near post by Rodrigo Bentancur and threatened to go in before it was cleared on the line. Wow, that was close.

Leicester City 0-0 Tottenham Hotspur, 7 minutes

We’re on here, folks! Dominic Solanke has just kicked the game off - his first action as a Spurs player. Ninety minutes of Angeball to come.

Leicester City 0-0 Tottenham Hotspur, 0 minutes

Ange Postecoglou is changing the way the rest of the world sees the Australian game. His first campaign as Tottenham Hotspur boss was a tale of two halves: they were unbeaten in their first 10 games, but a series of injuries, suspensions, international commitments and defensive catastrophes saw them slide to fifth on the ladder and miss qualification for the UEFA Champions League.

While he might be widely adored, the reality of football at this level is that the pressure will come quickly on Postecoglou if Spurs don’t get off to a strong start, and the same fans who have been singing his praises will turn on him in an instant. Spurs have retooled on the transfer market, bringing in Bournemouth striker Dominic Solanke - who seems a perfect fit for ‘Angeball’ - as well as Swedish wonderkid Lucas Bergvall and Leeds United’s teen sensation Archie Gray.

But their biggest improvement should come from within. History shows Postecoglou’s teams always get better with time, once his players have had enough of it to adjust to his high-octane tactics. Here’s a stat for you: Postecoglou has never failed to win a trophy in his second full season in any of his jobs, right back to his first coaching gig at South Melbourne in the old NSL.

Winning the Premier League might take a little longer than that, but the Europa League looks there for the taking.

Read the rest of our European football preview here.

The university of Ange has two new pupils.

Not for the first time, Ange Postecoglou has turned to Australian football to help bolster his coaching staff, hiring Nick Montgomery and Sergio Raimundo – the brains behind the Central Coast Mariners’ stunning A-League renaissance – to become his new offsiders at Tottenham Hotspur.

Montgomery and Raimundo steered the Mariners to an unlikely 6-1 victory over Melbourne City in the 2023 grand final as head coach and assistant respectively, but left the club for what proved to be an ill-fated eight-month stint at Hibernian in Scotland.

Sacked after missing out on a top-half finish in the Scottish Premiership, they now have the chance to re-establish themselves within British football under Postecoglou’s watchful eye in his second season in charge of the north London club.

They will enhance an already strong Mariners flavour at Spurs, where former Socceroos captain Mile Jedinak, who began his professional career at the Mariners in 2006-07, has been on Postecoglou’s staff since his arrival at the Premier League club.

It continues Postecoglou’s longstanding commitment to providing opportunities to talented coaches from Australia who would otherwise not get a chance abroad, even if Montgomery and Raimundo are technically imports.

Born and bred in Leeds, Montgomery spent most of his playing career with Sheffield United before moving to Australia as an import player with the Mariners in 2012 and becoming a citizen in 2017. Raimundo is Portuguese and once worked at Benfica. He met Montgomery on a coaching course, followed him to the Central Coast when they first took charge of the club’s academy team, and then went to Hibernian with him.

Postecoglou has spoken glowingly about what they achieved at the Mariners, the A-League’s lowest-budget club who have shaken up the Australian game with their shrewd recruitment, attacking minded tactics and youth focus, helping unearth or further develop Garang Kuol, Nectar Triantis and Josh Nisbet among many others.

“Nick has done brilliantly in Australia,” Postecoglou said at a press conference last year when Montgomery was announced as the new Hibernian boss.

“He did a fantastic job at a club that it is fair to say in Australia is not considered one of the big ones and won the whole thing last year. He has done it in a great way where he has developed young players and great he gets the opportunity.

“I am glad people are looking beyond the obvious in terms of candidates, whether they are at their doorstep or on the other side of the world.”

Montgomery and Raimundo handed the baton on the eve of last season to Mark Jackson, who took the Mariners to a new level with an unprecedented treble, winning the A-League premiership, championship and the AFC Cup in one of the greatest campaigns in history by an Australian club.

The departure of Chris Davies to Birmingham City has enabled Postecoglou to add to his coaching staff, with the pair joining Jedinak, Ryan Mason and Rob Burch, while Matt Wells has been promoted to senior assistant.

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Spurs finished fifth last season, missing out on UEFA Champions League qualification, but will be one of the favourites to win the Europa League in its new ‘Swiss system’ format, with teams from the Champions League no longer dropping down to play in the second-tier tournament after the group stage.

Harry Kewell (Yokohama F. Marinos), Kevin Muscat (Shanghai Port), Peter Cklamovski (FC Tokyo) and Ante Milicic (Chinese women’s national team) are among the former Postecoglou disciples who have branched out on their own in recent years.

Jedinak was reportedly offered the chance to succeed Tony Popovic at Melbourne Victory but turned it down to remain at Tottenham, paving the way for Patrick Kisnorbo’s controversial appointment on Tuesday.

Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal’s women’s team, featuring Matildas’ stars Steph Catley, Caitlin Foord and Kyra Cooney-Cross, are heading to Melbourne.