But Pochettino refused to use that as an excuse and insisted his team had only themselves to blame.
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The attendance of 85,011 was a club-record home attendance and record for an English club in a domestic fixture, according to Spurs, who were greeted by an awning outside Wembley that read “Welcome to Tottenham Hotspur”.
Spurs began purposefully but were rocked when Bernardo Silva hammered in a drive off the far upright from a Monaco counterattack on 15 minutes.
Toby Alderweireld pulled a goal back for Spurs on the stroke of half-time, but they suffered defeat in the Group E clash. We did enough to win the game but we didn’t take our chances.
“We concede a goal that you can not concede at this level when you play for Tottenham”.
Mauricio Pochettino criticised the manner of the goals his side conceded after Tottenham were beaten 2-1 by Monaco in the Champions League.
Pochettino added about the Wembley pitch, “You have more space to play, it’s more hard for the opponent to press you when there are more meters to run”.
They started brightly but missed chances, notably when Son’s effort was cleared off the line, and were then clinically punished for defensive lapses at the other end as the Ligue 1 leaders struck against the run of play to go 2-0 up after 31 minutes.
“Today was a fantastic day to share with our fans but I feel very disappointed”.
Pochettino sent on Mousa Dembele for Son at half-time and the Premier League side nearly had an instant equaliser as Dele Alli’s dipping half-volley from 25 yards drew an agile tip-over from Subasic. “We need to improve and learn we can not concede a goal like that first one”, Pochettino said when asked about the Wembley factor.
“It is not new”.
“We improved in the second half and had chances to win”. We need to criticise ourselves because it was our mistakes. We showed a lack of passion a little bit today because we can not concede these goals. Despite playing pretty well over the course of the match and dominating play, especially in the second half, Spurs weren’t able to grab that second goal and conceded two pretty poor early goals.
Nabil Dirar was forced off just five minutes into the game due to injury and whilst it was not part of the plan to change players until the second half, the Monaco boss admits it worked out well with Dirar’s replacement Lemar on the scoresheet.
“We conceded a goal after 16 minutes that, at this level and in football, you can not concede”, Pochettino told BT Sport.
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The North London based outfit are expected to play in front of a full capacity crowd to mark their return to the competition after last featuring in the Champions League back in 2011.
