Early goals from Paulo Dybala and Mehdi Benatia sealed a 2-1 win for Juventus against Tottenham Hotspur in the International Champions Cup in Melbourne on Tuesday morning.
Dybala found a way through the Spurs defence inside five minutes when a heavy touch from Dominic Ball gave him the ball to run through and smash passed Michel Vorm.
And it was 2-0 on 14 minutes. Benatia, recently joined from Bayern Munich, with an inch perfect header after a poor clearance from Dominic Ball gave possession to Miralem Pjanic, whose cross lead to the goal.
The second half performance from Spurs was much improved, much to do with the introduction of the widely impressive Erik Lamela.
And it was the Argentine who scored for Mauricio Pochettino’s side. Victor Wanyama nicked the ball away from Juventus in the midfield, and played Lamela through to slam past Beto in goals.
And, despite some late Spurs pressure, Juve held on for the win. How did the players rate in the first match of the 2016/17 campaign?
Goalkeeper and defence
Michel Vorm (6/10) - Good save to deny Dybala before the second Juventus goal. Short passing putting defence under unnecessary pressure at times in the first half, didn’t have much to do in the second.
Will Miller (Off: 46) (7/10) - Impressive touch and control, drives forward well. Looked good under pressure, with only a few misplaced passes counting against him. Future is bright, especially given that he was playing at left back, and not in his preferred position - further up the pitch.
Dominic Ball (Off: 79) (4/10) - Heavy touch in the early stages allowed Dybala to pounce and make it 1-0 to Juventus, whilst his clearance fell to Pjanic who crossed for 2-0. Mistake again with a simple back pass nearly allowed Dybala in as he rounded Vorm. Not the greatest opening 20 minutes for the man who spent last season on loan at Rangers, but he steadied as the game went on.
Cameron Carter-Vickers (6/10) - Caught out of position on a couple of occasions, once to let Dybala in behind in the first half and once to let Pjanic in behind in the second half. Bit of a weak tackle in the build up to Juventus’ opener but looked solid in terms of passing.
Kieran Trippier (Off: 63) (5/10) - Goes down too easily for second goal, didn’t make much of an impact before his departure on the hour mark.
Midfield and attacking
Ryan Mason (Off: 46) (5/10) - Captain for the first half, sprayed the ball about nicely but fairly uninspiring.
Victor Wanyama (7/10) - Great run out and 90 minutes on debut for Wanyama. Fantastic tackle in the midfield led to the Spurs goal. A great display of his passing, tough tackling and all round play.
Tom Carroll (Off: 63) (6/10) - Couple of good crosses into the box, looked lively going forward. Spurs’ most creative player in the first half.
Heung-Min Son (Off: 46) (5/10) - Sloppy lofted back-pass nearly led to goal, all round play was decent. Produced the worst header I’ve seen so far this year.
Nacer Chadli (Off: 46) (4/10) - Virtually non-existent in the first half. Did nothing of note and was taken off at half time.
Vincent Janssen (Off: 63) (5/10) - Played with his back to goal the entire match and was therefore very ineffectual. Hard to judge the £18m man based on this match, but we can tell he is going to need better service.
Substitutes
DeAndre Yedlin (On: 46) (6/10) - Played left-back rather than his preferred right-back for a large part of the second half. Produced a great ball forward which Edwards was unfortunate to not control.
Harry Winks (On: 46) (7/10) - The youngster was superb and possibly the most impressive youngster, passing under pressure was with purpose and dangerous.
Erik Lamela (On: 46) (9/10) - Looked his usual self coming off of the bench, totally fit despite it being the first pre-season match. There was much more about Spurs going forward in the second half, and a lot of that was down to the pace and passing of Lamela. A brilliant finish across the goalkeeper and into the far corner for his goal, and was influential in Spurs’ late push, passing well in the final third - notably setting up Harrison late on.
Josh Onomah (On: 46) (6/10) - Played deep in the midfield and looked to take a man on, passed the ball well and knows how to drive at a defence.
Anton Walkes (On: 63) (5/10) - Quiet after arriving on the hour mark, seemingly played out of position.
Shayon Harrison (On: 63) (6/10) - Was involved late on as his shot was saved down to his right by Beto, before he unfortunately took the ball off of Erik Lamela’s head.
Marcus Edwards (On: 63) (6/10) - Straight into the action, looked quick on the ball, great composure and a great touch. Didn’t quite manage to pull anything together, but the potential is clearly there.
Luke Amos (On: 79) (N/A) - Unable to comment, only made a few passes after coming on with ten minutes to go.