Defiant Poch proud of Spurs
MAURICIO Pochettino insisted Tottenham had nothing to be ashamed of after three minutes of madness ended their Champions League challenge in a painful 2-1 defeat against Juventus.
Tottenham were on course to reach the quarterfinals for the first time since 2011 when Son Heung-min rewarded their first-half dominance with the opening goal at Wembley on Wednesday night.
After the first leg finished 2-2, Son’s strike put Pochettino’s side ahead on aggregate, but Juventus completely flipped the script in the second leg of the last-16 tie with a stirring secondhalf fightback.
Gonzalo Higuain punished poor Tottenham marking to steer in Juventus’s equaliser and Paulo Dybala bagged the winner three minutes later with a cool finish after splitting the hosts’ poorly executed offside trap.
It was a bitter blow for Tottenham and the loss raised fresh questions about their ability to win major trophies under Pochettino.
But, yet to land any silverware with the north Londoners, Pochettino bristled at suggestions Tottenham aren’t mentally strong enough to win on the big occasions.
“All this talk is rubbish. At the end it is win or lose. When you assess the game, I think only Tottenham was better for more than 70 minutes,” he said.
“If Harry [Kane] scored at the end or we scored twice in the first half, maybe we are talking differently. I’m happy with my players. We did everything to try to win.
“It was not a lack of experience, not a lack of concentration. How many chances did we concede?
“We conceded three chances and they scored twice. We had a lot of chances and only scored one. We can talk about a lot of situations, but sometimes you need some luck to win.”
Pochettino ‘still ‘a dreamer’
Pochettino had spoken passionately this week about his dream of making Tottenham one of the best sides in England and Europe.
And even surrendering the lead against the Italian champions couldn’t dissuade the Argentine from his belief Tottenham are on the brink of joining Europe’s superpowers.
“I feel very proud, we dominated overall against a very good team like Juventus,” he said.
“In the two games we were much better, but at this level the tie went to Juventus in three minutes.
“I’m disappointed of course but the quality of the team was very good. We showed massive maturity. I’m relaxed and happy.
“I’m still a dreamer. When you compete in the Champions League with these clubs you can win or lose. Football is not a nightmare for me.”
Meanwhile, Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri claimed he never lost faith his side could fight back despite their lethargic first half.
“The guys put in a fantastic performance. Even at 1-0 down we had a good reaction,” he said.
“We had created chances in the first half, so we were confident we could get one goal back and kick on from there.
“You are going to find games that are difficult. We did suffer a lot but that’s normal in football.
“It’s fantastic to win a game at Wembley, a temple of football.”
Meanwhile, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola criticised his heavily rotated side for “forgetting to attack” despite reaching the Champions League quarterfinals 5-2 on aggregate over Basel on Wednesday night.
City suffered a first home defeat in 15 months as the Swiss champions came from behind to win 2-1 at the Etihad Stadium and salvage some pride from their last-16 tie after being thrashed 4-0 on home turf in the first leg three weeks ago.
“From tomorrow we will be happy to be in the quarterfinals for the second time in this club’s history. We are new in that position, so we are so happy for that,” said Guardiola.
“Even the first half was quite good, in the second half we forgot to attack, we forgot to play. Just to pass to pass for itself is nothing, so the second half was really, really poor.”