Manager Antonio Conte claims Tottenham Hotspur didn’t deserve to lose against Sporting CP
Antonio Conte and his Tottenham Hotspur side suffered their first defeat of the current season when they were beaten 2-0 by Ruben Amorim’s Sporting CP at the Estadio Jose Alvalade on Tuesday night.
The Lilywhites came into this game after a 2-0 win against Olympique de Marseille. Sporting, meanwhile, were on the back of a 3-0 hammering of Eintracht Frankfurt.
Former Spurs youth academy player Marcus Edwards was tearing Spurs to shreds at times and created two very good scoring chances in the first half. Tottenham started the second half in good fashion, with a cross from Harry Kane’s weak foot resulting in a header on target from Emerson Royal.
Another big chance to break the deadlock came down the left flank once again for Spurs. Ivan Perisic played in a devilish low cross in the 71st minute that was agonisingly out of Kane’s reach inside the box.
Speaking in the post-match interview, Conte claimed that Spurs had the chances to score as well (h/t Football.London):
“I think the game in the first half was in balance between the two teams. Honestly in the second half we felt the opportunity to get the three points and win the game. We had the chances to score but in the end we are talking about a loss.”
It took two late goals for Sporting to snatch a win. Paulinho’s header from a corner kick in the 90th minute came right after a massive save from an inspired Hugo Lloris just seconds before that.
Then, Spurs seemed to have lost focus at the back – especially Emerson Royal – who was dribbled past far too easily by Arthur to seal all three points in stoppage time with a second goal. According to Conte, a draw would have perhaps been a fairer result by how things went.
“I always say to my players that the details move the final result. I think that maybe we didn’t deserve to win but at the same time we didn’t deserve to lose this game tonight.”
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Marseille beat Frankfurt by a 1-0 scoreline, which means Spurs are now second in the group – level on points with the German side but trailing the 2020/21 Portuguese League champions by three points.
