Tottenham Hotspur 2 Sheriff Tiraspol 1: match report "Adaptation has taken some time, for personal reasons," said manager Andre Villas-Boas. Not speaking the language is difficult. It is a completely different social life to Italy. He has no family here, and he faced tough competition. But he is on the right track. Lamela's inventiveness proved pivotal in breaking down a formidable Sheriff rearguard, not that any of their own number were there to see it. No away ticket allocation had been requested by Sheriff, and thus there were no visiting fans in the stadium: an eerie state of affairs that gave the occasion a strangely lopsided feel. Where was everyone? "They got lost," manager Veaceslav Rusnac joked drily. But then Sheriff are no ordinary club. They hail from the quasi-autonomous Moldovan enclave of Transnistria, where the weather can be bitterly cold, the food questionable and the locals ferociously suspicious of outsiders. If nothing else, it was ideal preparation for facing Newcastle this weekend. Sheriff were tenacious and dogged, defending tightly and well before swarming forth like angry wasps on the counter-attack. Tottenham have been stung by this sort of tactic before, but their lock-picking skills appear to be improving through practice. "Obviously it's very difficult to break in behind when the two lines of four are so close together," Villas-Boas said. When this happens you need people to take on opponents, to start unlocking them. We need to take risks. Through passing, it's very difficult to find spaces in behind. It's probably a part of our game we have to work on. If he maintains his progress, Lamela will become a key plank in this strategy. Drifting in from the right, occasionally popping up on the left, Lamela was Tottenham's liveliest attacking threat. He forced a smart block from Miral Samardzic in the first half before breaking the deadlock in the second. Giving the ball to Christian Eriksen and receiving it via the heels of Djibril Paye, Lamela had time for just one touch, and it was a good one: low, left-footed, past Vjekoslav Tomic at his near post. There was a certain relief in Lamela's celebration - not vindication, perhaps, but a weight off his shoulders. By the time he received the ball a few minutes later, he was in a different frame of mind entirely. Lamela's signature move is the side-on dribble, in which he points his right shoulder in the direction of travel and rolls the ball along with his left foot, jigging gaily as he goes. Here it was too good for Paye, who brought him down. Penalty. Defoe smashed it in like it was his last, breaking Martin Chivers" four-decade record in the process. Ismail's volley was no more than a consolation. For Spurs, and Lamela, bigger things await. Tottenham (4-2-3-1): Friedel; Walker, Kaboul, Vertonghen, Naughton; Capoue (Paulinho 58), Dembele; Lamela, Eriksen (Holtby 81), Sigurdsson (Kane 69), Defoe. Subs: Archer (g), Chiriches, Lennon, Soldado. Booked: Eriksen. Goals: Lamela 60, Defoe 67 pen. Sheriff (4-2-3-1): Tomic; Balima, Samardzic, Metoua, Paye; Stanojevic, Moyal (Furdui 60); Ricardinho, Cadu (Pascenco 73), Henrique (Jhulliam 88); Isa. Subs: Stajila (g), Paireli, Fernando, Celestino. Goal: Isa 72. Referee: K Hansen (Denmark).