Tottenham Hotspur made the task of qualifying from their Champions League group that little bit harder after losing to Monaco last night.
Tottenham’s Dele Alli shoots at goal
A crowd of 85,011 at Wembley witnessed Spurs being humbled by Ligue 1 outfit Monaco in the opening game of their Champions League campaign, and Dele Alli told the Telegraph how they only have themselves to blame for the defeat.
The North Londoners were 2-0 down inside 31 minutes after goals from Bernado Silva and Thomas Lemar for the visitors.
Toby Alderweireld pulled one back for the home side just before half-time, but they failed to complete a second-half comeback, eventually losing 2-1, and Alli told the Telegraph what he feels was the main contributing factor to the poor result:
Monaco’s Andrea Raggi in action with Tottenham’s Dele Alli
“We need to make sure we learn from our mistakes and start games quicker and brighter. We need to finish strongly as well and be a lot more clinical…It’s just ourselves. We knew what to expect, we had tactics, I just think the slow start to the game killed us.”
Spurs’ next two Champions League games – back-to-back away fixtures against CSKA Moscow and Bayer Leverkusen, now become crucial to their hopes of progressing to the knock-out stages.
Alli, however, insisted that his side are still confident of making it through the group:
“We fancy ourselves against anyone. We’re definitely a confident side and we do expect to win games, no matter who is in front of us. We’ve let ourselves down in that first-half when we should have been better. We just need to make sure we keep improving and win the next game.”
Tottenham’s Dele Alli in action with Monaco’s Radamel Falcao
Tottenham resume their Premier League duties on Sunday with a home fixture against second from bottom Sunderland, and how Mauricio Pochettino utilises his squad will have a huge bearing on their chances of success both domestically and in Europe.
Tottenham’s Dele Alli
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