Tott enham among Europe’s best - boss
SUBLIME: RELENTLESS SPURS SHOW TITLE CREDENTIALS
Pochettino’s side book their place with two games to go.
Tottenham’s swaggering 3-1 victory over Real Madrid proves they deserve to be ranked as genuine contenders for the Champions League title, manager Mauricio Pochettino has claimed.
Pochettino’s side came of age at Wembley on Wednesday as they delivered a breathtaking display to book their place in the last16 and hand Madrid their first Champions League group stage defeat in five years.
Dele Alli opened the scoring and bagged a superb second before Christian Eriksen notched Tottenham’s killer third, with Cristiano Ronaldo’s late strike no consolation for the shell-shocked European champions.
Pochettino insists there can no longer be any doubt his team are the equal of Real and rest of the Champions League superpowers.
“Obviously this sort of win makes us more visible. It’s something everyone around Europe will see,” he said.
“This is preparing us very well to achieve our goals. We want to win big competitions.”
The vibrant performance will go down as one of Tottenham’s greatest days, joining the Gareth Bale-inspired rout of Inter Milan in 2010, Ricky Villa’s FA Cup-winning heroics in 1981 and Paul Gascoigne’s 1991 Wembley masterclass against Arsenal in the club’s pantheon of iconic moments.
It was remarkable to see a side of Madrid’s class rendered so helpless in the face of Tottenham’s relentless pressing and incisive att acks.
After an indifferent start to the season from Alli, this was a welcome return to form for the England midfielder, while Harry Kane and Harry Winks also gave influential displays that suggest Tottenham are ready to break through.
“It was fantastic for Dele. I start to feel he is getting better every day,” Pochettino said.
In contrast to Tottenham’s unbridled joy, Real boss Zinedine Zidane is facing the first serious test of his coaching credentials as the pressure mounts following his side’s second successive defeat.
With two games to play in Group H, they have a five-point cushion in second place and should still qualify for the last-16, but Zidane conceded they are in trouble at present.
“We are going through a bad moment. This is life. You have to accept sometimes that things won’t go your way,” he said. –