“Will we get more comfortable here?”
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“There’s been a great improvement from Spurs in the last two, two-and-a-half years, but they’re still missing something, a bit of steel, a bit of intensity”, Keane added.
Tottenham’s Champions League campaign began in disappointment as an English club-record home crowd watched them beaten 2-1 by Monaco at Wembley.
Tottenham will be hoping to return to winning ways when they host Sunderland in the Premier League on Sunday at White Hart Lane.
“We knew that from the start”.
The English club last appeared in the Champions League in the 2010-11 season, reaching the quarterfinals before losing to Real Madrid with a team that included Gareth Bale and Luka Modric – who both now play for Madrid. They’ve improved. We weren’t clinical enough. We’ll try to enjoy it and try to win the game, because that’s the important thing.
Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino has tried to allay any fears there will be any negative affect on his team, saying: “We need to behave naturally and not try to find an excuse, that’s never good”.
The Gunners fared slightly better in their first match of the tournament, snatching a draw with a less than convincing performance versus Paris Saint-Germain at the Parc des Princes on Tuesday night.
“We need to make sure we learn from our mistakes and start games quicker and brighter”.
Monaco had ridden their luck early on but they survived and then stunned Spurs twice on the counter-attack.
A record crowd of 85,000 had turned up to watch Tottenham at the national stadium, but were left disappointed despite Toby Alderweireld pulling one back in the 45th minute. “Our mental approach was to remind ourselves of how we beat Arsenal, in just as big a stadium”. It’s a shame because it was a good chance to give the fans a very good victory.
“Most of the fans will be against us, we know that, and they will be for Spurs but this is only extra motivation”.
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Alli indicated he did not mind being moved around the pitch, saying: “I’ll play wherever the manager wants me to, it’s not a problem”.
