Mauricio Pochettino admits Tottenham Hotspur produced too many errors against AS Monaco on Wednesday night.
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Monaco led through first half goals from Bernardo Silva and Thomas Lemar, managing to hold off Mauricio Pochettino’s men despite a fine header from Toby Alderweireld on the stroke of half-time.
“We designed a pitch with the same dimensions as Wembley”, he said. Brilliant at the weekend and then tonight, when it was set up with a huge crowd, the two goals they gave away in the first half an hour, it’s criminal, it really is. We created chances but weren’t clinical. “We have a lot of important games to play”.
Spurs, quarter-finalists in 2011, have two pitches at their training ground with the same dimensions as Wembley, a stadium they have won just once at since it was re-opened in 2007. “We need to make sure we learn from our mistakes and start games quicker and brighter”. “We tried to look at how Tottenham would play, to look at their best aspects and their less good aspects”.
“We were a little bit better and deserved this win”, said Silva.
The Spurs boss, who had never lost a European game at home with Tottenham before Wednesday, described his side as having a “lack of passion”.
The crowd, beating the 75,038 that watched Tottenham play Sunderland at White Hart Lane in 1938, was a new record for a home fixture for a British club in the competition.
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.
“Our mental approach to this game was to remember how we beat Arsenal in a big stadium like this one”, said Jardim.
“We wanted to keep our substitutions until later but it was a happy substitution in the end because he scored the second goal, so it all worked out well for us”.
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So maybe there is a Wembley curse, not just for the Champions league which also affected Arsenal but Wembley curse, with Spurs winning on only one of their last five appearances there before this demoralizing meeting with Monaco.
