Friendlies round-up: Berbatov's quick double inspires Spurs
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Your support makes all the difference.Dimitar Berbatov, Tottenham Hotspur's new Bulgarian striker, scored twice in two minutes in the first half to give his side a 2-0 victory over Birmingham City at St Andrew's yesterday.
Both Berbatov's goals were set up by Hossam Ghaly. Berbatov chested down the Egypt midfielder's pass for his first goal after 12 minutes and then capped Tottenham's early pressure with a second two minutes later. This time he took Ghaly's pass on his thigh before thundering a shot home off the underside of the crossbar.
Tottenham, fresh from a successful tour of France, dominated with an attacking line-up which included Berbatov, Jermain Defoe and Robbie Keane, as well as another new signing, Benoit Assou-Ekotto. But they left out the England trio of Neil Sullivan, Michael Carrick and Jermaine Jenas.
Bolton, Tottenham's first Premier League opponents on 19 August, were beaten 2-1 at Burnley, whose new-look side took the lead after 11 minutes, Andy Gray following up after Alan Mahon's shot was parried. Vaz Te equalised after 22 minutes from a cross by Kevin Davies. Burnley's winner came from Micah Hyde in the 66th minute.
Quinton Fortune came through the game unscathed, and Bolton plan to offer the South African a permanent deal.
Gareth Southgate saw his Middlesbrough side lose 1-0 to Rangers in a lacklustre match at Ibrox, and confirmed afterwards that he was still interested in signing Robert Huth, the Chelsea defender whose transfer fell through because of a World Cup injury. "We were disappointed not to have been able to do the deal, but we are still monitoring the situation," he said.
If the result disappointed Southgate, his opposite number, Paul Le Guen, enjoyed victory in his first home game in charge of Rangers. Thomas Buffel scored the goal from Dado Prso's cross just before the interval.
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink scored his first goal for Charlton since moving from Boro in a 4-1 victory away to Millwall. Hasselbaink netted after 11 minutes at the New Den, but Marvin Elliott scored a well-taken equaliser. Darren Ambrose restored the lead with a header before Talal El Karkouri and youngster James Walker scored in four second-half minutes.
Doncaster Rovers, facing foreign opposition for the first time since they played Lazio in 1970, got Real Sociedad's tour off to a bad start by beating the Spaniards 1-0. Paul Green chipped in a 31st-minute corner, which Jason Price headed on for Nick Fenton to score. Real changed their entire team for the second half but found no way through.
West Ham lost 2-1 to IFK Goth-enburg, but more importantly lost Anton Ferdinand with a hamstring injury. Joseph Yobo has signed a new four-year contract with Everton, but the defender is ruled out of the friendly at Celtic today by an Achilles injury. Portsmouth have failed with a £4.5 million offer for Gareth Barry, the Aston Villa midfielder.
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