Juventus put pressure on referee, says Pochettino

Mauricio Pochettino has told his Tottenham players they need to become more streetwise after he claimed members of the Juventus hierarchy put pressure on the referee during the second leg of their last-16 Champions League tie.

Pochettino has revealed how he witnessed Juventus president Andrea Agnelli and chief executive Giuseppe Marotta in the Wembley tunnel at several points during Wednesday’s 2-1 defeat by the Italian champions that resulted in Spurs being knocked out of the competition 4-3 on aggregate.

The Tottenham manager claimed Agnelli and Marotta “put pressure” on Polish referee Szymon Marciniak at half-time after he chose not to award a penalty after Jan Vertonghen brought down Juventus winger Douglas Costa.

“Before the game was Agnelli, after the game was Agnelli, Marotta. I saw at half-time how they put pressure on the referee,” insisted Pochettino. “I’m only describing the situation, how they behaved, because I like to learn and to improve.

“They were complaining about the penalty in the first half. The owner [Agnelli] stayed in the corridor, in the tunnel before and during the game. It’s a club with a culture to try to do everything to help the team. Juve are specialists, because they have a habit to win, the habit to put pressure on the referee.”

Pochettino is not calling for Spurs chairman Daniel Levy to start paying visits to the tunnel at half-time. But he wants his team to learn from Juventus as his players’ protests to the referee on Wednesday fell on deaf ears.

“I am not complaining. It’s only that I saw how they behave. It’s like if you go on Netflix and see a programme about Juventus,” said Pochettino. “It was easy for the referee to manage us because we were very nice people, trying to help to play a game. Maybe we need to learn, the coaching staff, like our players, how we put pressure on the referee.”