UEFA Champions League week 5: AS Monaco 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur
The Champions League comes to an early end for Tottenham as the London side got defeated for the second time by French club AS Monaco. The game was very opened but clearly the best team won tonight and with still one game to play, the Spurs’ faith is sealed.
Coach Pochettino comments the elimination:
“At this level, you cannot concede the way we conceded. You pay, because it’s the Champions League, the toughest competition in the world with the Premier League. We conceded chances and you will always pay in this competition. You need to be focused and to compete in the best way.
To analyze the game now is not right because we’re out of the Champions League. Last season or the season before we always rotated in the Europa League and this season, it’s exciting to be in the Champions League but difficult to rotate and that’s the difference we need to analyze and to learn.
It’s the first experience for us (coaching team) and most of the players in the Champions League and it’s completely different. That is our challenge. I’m very disappointed in the way we conceded. The first half was open, we created some chances but Hugo kept us in the game. In the second half we conceded after three minutes, then we came back but in the next action, we conceded. It’s true we’re much, much better than we’ve showed in the Champions League but we need to learn that to compete in the Premier League and Champions League demands a lot of mental energy and that’s our challenge for the future.
Now we need our heads up and to lift ourselves. Chelsea have had a clear week to prepare for us, and now we can start to prepare for Chelsea. “
