Under-21s toppled by Valencia

Our Under-21s' return to Premier League International Cup action ended in a 3-1 defeat to Valencia on Tuesday night.

Back in the competition for the first time since 2018/19, we took the lead thanks to a wonderful solo effort from Leo Black but were pegged back when Pedro Aleman burst through on goal just before the break, before Daniel Paulino and Alexander Gurendal netted near-identical back-post tap-ins during a second half in which we struggled to create any meaningful chances in attack.

One plus point was the return to action of central defender Alfie Dorrington, who completed an hour in his first game back after getting injured in last season's Premier League 2 play-off quarter-final against Liverpool. He was one of a handful of changes made by Under-21s Coach Wayne Burnett, who shuffled his pack with the fixtures set to come thick and fast over the next few weeks.

The Spanish visitors found their desire to run in behind stifled by the offside flag in the first half - skipper Ruben Iranzo and Paulino both had the ball in the net but saw their efforts chalked off - while we made a bright start, capped by a superb goal by midfielder Black with 10 minutes gone. Collecting Damola Ajayi's quickly-taken free-kick from out on the right flank, he embarked on a dazzling solo run into the final third before entering the area and wrong-footing goalkeeper Raul Jimenez with a cool finish to give us the lead in some style.

We produced some tidy passages of play during that period while protecting the ball well in the face of Valencia's pressure, but were unable to fashion any clear-cut chances and after Pablo Lopez saw his angled effort saved by Luca Gunter before dragging another shot across goal and just wide, the visitors equalised with three minutes to go until half-time when Ismael Santana lifted a long ball forward from the right flank, with Aleman racing in behind to slot home.

Neither side created too much in the way of clear opportunities after the break but Valencia punished us twice after attacks down their left flank. They took the lead just prior to the hour mark when Lopez got down that side and delivered a low ball across goal, Gunter appeared to be impeded at the near post by the arriving Alejandro Cerda and that left Paulino with a simple conversion as he arrived at the back stick.

It was a similar effort 10 minutes from time that led to Valencia's third, this time substitute Leslie Adjei Okai getting a cross in from the left with Gurendal on hand to fire home on the other side. Our best opportunity to reply came when Jimenez scuffed a clearance to Callum Olusesi - the youngest player in our squad, who was named captain on the night - but Iranzo did just enough to prevent him from getting a shot in on goal. The result leaves us with work to do in Group A, with home fixtures against Monaco, Ajax and Dinamo Zagreb to come later in the season.

'When you have so much of the ball, you need to create more'

Coach Wayne wanted to see our possession over the course of the game translated into more chances. He said afterwards: "In the first half I thought we were okay, we dominated the ball but we were disappointed to concede a goal in the manner in which we did. When you have so much of the ball, you need to create more chances and we didn't really do that, we got into some good areas but didn't capitalise. In the second half, it was similar to the first half in terms of our possession, but again we're disappointed because we didn't create enough chances.

"If you're not going to create chances, you have to make sure that you at least don't concede and we didn't do either tonight - we've not threatened the goal enough and allowed our goal to be threatened too much. They came here with some talented players, it was clear they wanted to defend, make it difficult for us to break them down and try to hit us on the break and they did that twice. It's disappointing - we have to give credit to Valencia, they came here with a game plan and I guess they'll be pleased with the way it's gone for them."

On the return of defender Dorrington, Wayne added: "We're pleased about Alfie - he's been out for a long period of time now and we have to monitor him closely. The plan was always for him to play between 45 and 60 minutes tonight and he's managed to come through, which we're really pleased about."

Match data

Goals: Spurs - Black 9; Valencia - Aleman 42, Paulino 58, Gurendal 80.

Yellow cards: Valencia - Lopez 45, Aleman 70, Iranzo 73.

Referee: Richie Watkins.

Venue: Lamex Stadium, Stevenage.

Weather: Dry, bright, 16 degrees.

Attendance: 435.