40  POL LIROLA Kosak     
  4  Mehdi BENATIA    (39  Luca MARRONE  46)
24  Daniele RUGANI  (48  Lorenzo ROSSETI  79)
12  Alex SANDRO  (44  Luca COCCOLO  79)

11  HERNANES  (41  Carlos BLANCO Moreno  79)
18  Mario LEMINA  (45  Roman MACEK  79)
22  Kwadwo ASAMOAH  (c)  (47  Mattia VITALE  66)
  5  Miralem PJANIC  (42  Giulio PARODI  66)

37  Roberto PEREYRA  (49  Alberto CERRI  46)

21  Paulo DYBALA 

Unused subs: 
38  Emilio AUDERO
34  Mattia DEL FAVERO
- -  Leonardo LORIA
- -  Grigoris KASTANOS
- -  Stefano PADOVAN
 

16  Kieran TRIPPIER  (39  Shayon HARRISON  62)
38  Cameron CARTER-VICKERS
43  Dominic BALL  (46  Luke AMOS  79)
47  Will MILLER  (11  Erik LAMELA 46  )

  8  Ryan MASON (c)  (29  Harry WINKS 46)
12  Victor WANYAMA

  7  Heung-Min SON  (32  DeAndre YEDLIN  46)
28  Tom CARROLL  (48  Marcus EDWARDS  62)
22  Nacer CHADLI  (25  Josh ONOMAH  46)

  9  Vincent JANSSEN  (45  Anton WALKES  62)

Unused subs: 
31  Luke McGEE
37  Kyle WALKER-PETERS
40  Tom GLOVER
 

Spurs suffered a narrow defeat to Juventus under the Melbourne Cricket Ground floodlights in this International Champions Cup meeting.  The 2-1 score-line reflects the quick start made by the Italian side, with Tottenham coming into the game more in the second half.

Fielding sides without the players who took part in the Euro 2016 finals, there was a youthful feel about the game, especially with the Tottenham starting line-up.  With three Academy players in the back four, including Will Miller, who has played a variety of more forward positions and Dominic Ball, who played in a defensive midfield position for Glasgow Rangers last season, it was perhaps unsurprising that Juve got about them to capitalise on their inexperience. 

It was Ball who had a loose touch on the ball as Spurs tried to play it out from the back.  In a flash, Pererya took it off him, just inside the Tottenham half and his pass through to Dybala on his left saw the Argentinian striker place a left foot shot across Vorm and out of his reach into the bottom left hand corner of his goal.  It was not the start that Spurs had hoped for and being 0-1 down after six minutes left them a tough task to come back against a side with a strong look about it.   A virtual replay of the goal saw Vorm get a good hand to a shot from Dybala and get it over for a corner.  The corner wasn't effectively cleared and when the ball was dinked back in, Medhi Benatia rose to loop a header back across the goal and into the net.  At 0-2, it was going to be a long 76 minutes.  Spurs made a complaint to the Australian ref about a push by the scorer on Trippier, but to no avail.

Spurs were putting themselves into positions of trouble with a back-pass, which Dybala got to first, but as he nudged the ball past Vorm, it went too far and out for a goal-kick.  Just before the half hour, Spurs had their first attack, winning a corner, but, when it was cleared, Carroll's cross back in was headed a long way wide by Son at the near post.  Spurs were competing a bit better, with Wanyama looking strong in midfield and Mason was getting about and nearly had his head taken off  by a high boot from Pjanic. 

The youngsters seemed to pick up confidence the longer the game went on and Miller made a neat burst between two defenders in the Juventus box, going down as he was sandwiched between them, but the referee gave a goal-kick.  And Tottenham might have had a chance when Hernanes sliced a clearance in the penalty area and Neto just managed to fall on the ball on the edge of the six yard box before Chadli realised where it had gone.

There was little more goal action before half-time, when a number of changes were made, which had a spritely effect on the Spurs side.  However, it was Juve who had the first goal-scoring chance, when Pjanic ran between Cameron Cater-Vickers and DeAndre Yedlin in the 53rd minute to shoot left footed form 10 yards out, but his effort sailed over the bar, when he should really have hit the target.  At the other end, new signing Vincent Janssen picked the ball up from a poor clearance, putting it in front of substitute Erik Lamela to strike a shot form the left, but it took a flick off a defender and went wide for a corner. 

Ball settled little more in the second half, as Juve took their foot off the pedal, but Onomah looked composed and made some good runs, while they were joined just after the hour by Marcus Edwards, Shayon Harrison and Anton Walkes to increase the Academy numbers in the side.  The changes sparked Tottenham into action and when Wanyama picked the ball off ten yards inside the Juventus half, he moved forward and played it towards Harrison, who left it to run for Lamela and Erik dispatched a low shot from the left across the outstretched dive of Neto, finding the bottom corner.  The goal was well taken by a player who looks more at home at Spurs, despite the almost routine rumours linking him with a move to Internazionale.  I am not sure why he and Marcus Edwards were wearing gloves though !!

More changes for the Italians and a run out for Luke Amos disrupted play, but Spurs finished the match the stronger of the two sides and looked the more to score.  Onomah put Lamela through and his shot was unconvincingly beaten out by Neto with ten minutes to go, although Spurs players were finding it hard to keep their feet, so I am not sure of the pitch was more suited to Aussie Rules football than the Beautiful Game.

Winks looked good in possession and Edwards looked confident on the ball, but the opposition had obviously heard about his reputation and he had little time on the ball before a challenge came in.  It got a bit scrappy and Pol Lirola got a booking for stretching Wanyama's shirt to XXXXXL.  Yedlin stuck in a cross that was just too far behind Lamela for him to get his neck around it, then Erik played in Harrison on the left and he stretched, but got a good shot on goal, which would have crept inside the post had Neto not got down to it to push it wide for a corner.  As added time was ticking away, Harry Winks made a good jinking run inside the box and lifted a cross to the far post, but Shayon could only head it straight up in the air.

So, a 1-2 loss, but the experience the young players will have picked up was of use, with the Champions League this season meaning their opportunities might be limited.  After the initial scoring burst form Juventus, the game became more and more Tottenham's to dominate.  They did not create too many direct goal-scoring chances, but did test Neto in the second half, which they didn't do in the first half.  Without the bigger name internationals, it is difficult to put this result into any sort of context, but then, Juventus were without their star names too.

Atletico Madrid are next and how Pochettino shapes the side of that match will be interesting and Christian Eriksen might get some match time, as he was sick and omitted for this game.  Another game will help, but the Premier League start is not far off now.

Kirk Hammerton