Mauricio Pochettino lamented Tottenham’s slow start after Barcelona defeated Spurs 4-2 at Wembley.
Philippe Coutinho opened the scoring in the second minute, and Pochettino claimed conceding early “destroyed” their gameplan.
The manager was quoted by the Daily Mail as saying:
“That changed everything. The emotion becomes tough when you are against Barcelona and players like Messi and Suarez.
“It was a game we needed to win and to concede straight away destroyed the plan.”
Tottenham lost their opening Champions League game against Inter Milan but were much better in this clash.
Harry Kane scored to cut the deficit to one goal before Messi and Erik Lamela exchanged goals. The Barcelona attacker had the last laugh as he finished the tie with the fourth goal of the night.
Pochettino, however, praised his team for fighting against the La Liga champions.
“I want to congratulate the team, because we were always in the game, always fighting, never giving up.”
Tottenham have two games against PSV Eindhoven as we look to get our first points of the campaign. Anything less than two wins will make it extremely tough to qualify from the group.
Spurs should take some positives from this game, despite the loss. Lionel Messi was in exceptional form and it is tough to stop the Barcelona juggernaut when they start going.
Pochettino does have a point in conceding early and costing us ultimately. Hopefully, we won’t make the same mistakes in the coming games and learn from this tie.
