Fans flock to Suwon for final Tottenham game in Korea

A tweet on the official Tottenham Hotspur account shows Seoul World Cup Stadium in Suwon, Gyeonggi where Spurs will face Sevilla on Saturday evening. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

SUWON, Gyeonggi — Tens of thousands of football fans had already descended on Suwon, Gyeonggi by 4 p.m. on Saturday, four hours before Tottenham Hotspur were set to face Sevilla in the final game of the Coupang Play Series.

With temperatures pushing 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) and the forecast monsoon rains nowhere to be seen, football fans started gathering outside Suwon World Cup Stadium in the Gyeonggi capital hours before kickoff on Saturday, braving the heat to be first in the door when the stadium gates open.

Tottenham are set to round off their Korea tour with an exhibition game against La Liga club Sevilla at 8 p.m. on Saturday, a pre-season friendly for both sides with the 2022-23 Premier League season set to kick off on Aug. 6 with the Spanish season following one week later.

Tottenham arrived in Korea last Sunday and spent a week training in and around capital city Seoul. The club faced Team K League, a squad made up of the best players from the domestic Korean league, on Wednesday, winning 6-3 in an emphatic exhibition game.

Sevilla have used Seoul as their training base ahead of the 2022-23 La Liga season, spending 10 days here training at the Olympic Stadium in southern Seoul. Saturday's game against Tottenham is their only friendly.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]