Tottenham Hotspur fell to defeat in their opening game of the International Champions Cup, losing 2-1 to Juventus in Melbourne.

Early goals from Paulo Dybala and Mehdi Benatia in the first half put Spurs on the back foot straight away as they failed to create any chances in the first half.

The second half saw the introduction of Erik Lamela, who got a goal back with 23 minutes to go but Spurs were unable to build on that and get an equaliser.

Dybala and Benatia score early to put Spurs on the back foot

After a bright opening from the Lillywhites, Juventus took the lead in the 6th minute when a mistake from young centre-back Dominic Ball gave the ball to Roberto Pereyra, who instead of going for goal, played the ball to Dybala who stroked the ball confidently past Michel Vorm to give his side the lead.

Dybala celebrates his opening goal | Photo: Getty
Dybala celebrates opening the scoring | Photo: Getty

The goal gave the Juventus players confidence and they almost made it two when another defensive mistake allowed Dybala to get in behind once again but this time a good save from Vorm kept it to 1-0.

The problem though was that from the resulting corner, the Spurs player's failed to clear the ball properly and it fell Miralem Pjanić who crossed the ball back into the box to where Benatia was and the defender rose high to head the ball into the top right-hand corner of the net to double Juve's lead.

The Spurs players though after going 2-0 down, started to have more of the ball and almost created a couple of openings but the Juventus defence stood strong and resolute. 

It was a very frustrating first half for the Lillywhites as they just couldn't do enough to create a goalscoring opportunity and they were hoping to do better in the second half.

Spurs made a bright start to the second half

The beginning of the second half saw Spurs on the front foot once again but they just couldn't create anything of note and were almost caught out at the other end when Pjanic was in on goal after a long ball up field. The midfielder though blasted his shot over the bar when he should have hit the target.

Spurs though did finally have a decent effort at goal when Lamela hit a nice left-footed shot from just outside the area but it went just wide of the goal.

Lamela got one goal back for Spurs but it wasn't enough

Lamela was bright since coming on at half-time and he got Spurs back in the game with a lovely left-footed finish inside the box. The goal came from a Juventus mistake when Victor Wanyama nicked the ball in the middle of the park which went into the path of Lamela who did the rest to get his team back into the game.

Wanyama was very impressive on his debut | Photo: Getty
Wanyama was very impressive on his debut | Photo: Getty

Lamela almost got his and Spurs second of the game with ten minutes to go when a good move saw the winger hit a left-footed shot inside the box but Juventus keeper Neto saved it easily as it was hit straight at him.

Unfortunately, for Spurs they were unable to score a second even though Shayon Harrison forced Neto into a brilliant save in the final minutes of the game after a lovely through pass from Lamela.

Spurs now turn their attention to their second game of the International Champions Cup on Friday when they face Athletico Madrid at 11:00BST.

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