Pre-season friendly: Girona 4 Tottenham Hotspur 1

Tottenham Hotspur ended their pre-season with a disappointing 4-1 defeat away to La Liga side Girona.

Mauricio Pochettino remained without a number of key personnel due to their success at the World Cup, but left out the star players available at his disposal.

Christian Eriksen and Davinson Sanchez remained at home, but Heung-min Son led the line for Spurs and Lucas Moura, Georges-Kevin Nkoudou, Ben Davies, Serge Aurier and Michel Vorm started.

There were also further opportunities for a number of youngsters in the squad with TJ Eyoma, Anthony Georgiou, Luke Amos, George Marsh and Oliver Skipp involved.

Girona immediately put Tottenham on the back foot in hot conditions and Davies had to be alert to thwart the hosts in the fourth minute.

Vorm was called into action six minutes later and produced a fine stop to deny a header by Anthony Lozano.

Then with 13 on the clock, Spurs took the lead when Lucas Moura fired a free kick into the top corner from 20-yards.

It didn’t take too long for Girona to equalise, however, as nine minutes later a David Timor free kick hit the post and was put in by Juanpe.

A drinks break occurred just past the half an hour mark and soon after the La Liga side went ahead.

Good work from Bernardo Espinosa allowed Lozano with a simple chance and he took it to make it 2-1.

That was the end of the scoring until the break and Pochettino brought off Vorm, Aurier and Moura for Paulo Gazzaniga, Kyle Walker-Peters and Fernando Llorente.

Spurs also equalised early in the second period, but Amos couldn’t get a clean connection to an effort and it sailed wide.

Girona then put the game to bed when they won the ball high up the pitch and Portu slotted home coolly.

Tottenham were beginning to get overrun at the back now and the hosts made it 4-1 just past the hour mark when Manchester City loanee Aleix Garcia rifled home after Eyoma had blocked Portu’s effort.

Further changes were made by Pochettino as Japhet Tanganga, Jon Dinzeyi, Paris Maghoma, Shilow Tracey and Jamie Bowden come on at Estadi Montilivi.

The score stayed 4-1 though, as a young Spurs starting XI concluded pre-season with a heavy loss in Spain.

While the result is not the most important thing, going down to such a big defeat is a little concerning heading into Saturday’s Premier League opener at Newcastle United.

Tottenham Hotspur: Vorm © (Gazzaniga 46); Aurier (Walker-Peters 46), Eyoma (Dinzeyi 79), Davies, Georgiou; Amos (Maghoma 79), Marsh (Bowden 83), Skipp; Lucas (Llorente 46), Nkoudou (Tanganga 63); Son (Tracey 79).

Unused substitutes: Whiteman.