Spurs win but Jose is furious at Alli’s error
TOTTENHAM manager Jose Mourinho admitted he was angry with Dele Alli during his side’s Carabao Cup quarter-final win at Stoke. Spurs booked their place in the last four thanks to goals from Gareth Bale, Ben Davies and Harry Kane against the Championship club and they are now just two wins away from winning the competition. They made life harder for themselves as Alli attempted a flick during a transition, gave the ball away and Stoke went on to equalise with their first shot of the match through Jordan Thompson. The 24-year-old midfielder was given a chance to prove himself to Mourinho, having found himself out in the cold in recent weeks, and that moment undid a promising first half. He was substituted shortly after and Mourinho blamed him for the goal they conceded. ‘Yes, for me a player that plays in that position is a player that has to link and create and not to create problems for his own team,’ said Mourinho. ‘In that situation, an objective counter-attack would probably end with a goal, and it ended with a counter-attack behind our defenders. ‘We were unbalanced because when you are in possession, you have fullbacks out wide and another midfielder in a different line and they caught us in a counter-attack. They transformed the result of the game that was totally in our hands, so yes I am upset.’ Spurs were able to recover from that as Davies and Kane struck in the final ten minutes to ultimately get the victory they deserved. Bale’s header had put Spurs in front midway through the first half, but the Wales international winger did not appear after the interval as he asked to come off following a calf injury.