It was a familiar name that did the damage at White Hart Lane as Sandro struck twice, but it was not the Brazilian midfield enforcer but rather a young Spanish striker who handed three points to Barcelona in the Group 1 NextGen series game.

Barcelona opened the scoring after 19 minutes as the Spain Under-17 striker glanced his effort beyond Spurs keeper Lawrence Vigouroux. Sandro's second was calmly taken as he sprinted beyond the Tottenham back four to seal the victory.

The loss means that Tottenham drop to third place on goal difference, with Barcelona moving to the top of the table after picking up their fourth point of the competition.

Alex Pritchard
Pritchard was the outstanding player for Spurs against Barcelona Reuters

Spurs went into the game looking to build on a strong start to this seasons tournament, coming from behind to record an impressive 3-2 away victory over Wolfsburg, whilst Barcelona had drawn with Anderlecht.

The hosts had the better of the early exchanges, their high tempo pressing disrupting Barcelona's attempts to establish any rhythm or fluency in their passing and could have taken the lead in the first minute, Souleymane Coulibaly chasing down a clearance from which deflected narrowly over on to the roof of the net.

Tottenham continued to impress in the early stages with Alex Pritchard impressing on the left of a Spurs front three twice failing to find the target when well placed, his two efforts punctuated by a Kenneth McEvoy effort that trickled narrowly wide.

Barca made Spurs pay for their profligacy in the 19<sup>th minute, a magnificent raking crossfield pass finding Adama loitering near the right touchline, the forwards low cross found Sandro who whose first time finish flashed past Vigouroux from six yards.

Despite taking the lead, Tottenham continued to impress with Coulibaly and Pritchard particularly catching the eye.

Barcelona's highly rated midfielder Sergi Samper was struggled to get a foot hold on the game, despite his obvious talent, and Spurs continued to threaten with Prtichard cutting inside his marker before curling an effort against the crossbar from 18 yards.

Shaquile Coulthirst was introduced in the second half as Tottenham went looking for a rqualiser, but it was the pace of Alain Ebwelle who began to exploit a now exposed full-back Alexander McQueen.

Barcelona began to settle in to their stride and started to play the passing football that has come to earn them so many plaudits.

The Spanish giants added to their tally in the 74<sup>th minute when a route one clearance was picked up by Sandro who raced away from the defenders to curl his effort home and seal the three points.

Substitute Joel Huertas should have added to Barcelona's tally having been slid through on the inside right channel but couldn't his shot past the imposing frame of Vigouroux.

Spurs coach Alex Inglethorpe believed his side did not give a proper account of themselves after making too many errors and failing to convert their chances.

"It was disappointing in some respects as we are a confident team that likes to have the ball," he said. "In the second half there were too many tactical errors and we gave them a bit too much control.

"I don't think we have them too much respect, I just think we could have handled the ball a bit better in the second half."

Tottenham (4-1-2-3): Vigouroux - A McQueen, Ball (sub: Lameiras, 75'), Veljkovic, Stewart - Dombaxe - Gallifuoco (sub: Coulthirst, 52'), Bentaleb (sub: Ogilvie, 75') - McEvoy, Coulibaly (sub: Onomah, 66'), Pritchard

Coach: Alex Inglethorpe

Barcelona (4-3-3): Ondoa - Ekpolo, Costa, Bagnack, Quintilla (sub: Gafarot, 87') - Quesada, Samper, Calvet - Adama (sub: Cristian, 77') (sub: Babunski, 77'), Sandro (sub: Huertas, 87'), Ebwelle (sub: Olivan, 82')

Coach: Jordi Vinyals