Tottenham Hotspur struggled during the early stages of their Champions League clash with Ajax on Tuesday night.
Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino addressed the media today, ahead of his side’s Premier League clash with Bournemouth on Saturday, and highlighted how Lionel Messi’s display for Barcelona last night served as evidence of just how poor his own team began their Champions League semi-final clash with Ajax, as quoted by Football.London.
Spurs were quite simply not at the races for the first 30 mints of their game against the Dutch side, and they were found wanting both quality wise, and from a work ethic perspective.
Pochettino would have been bitterly disappointed with the manner in which his Tottenham side allowed Ajax to play during the first third of the match, and it could prove to be extremely costly for them, as far as their hopes of reaching the final of the Champions League go.
The Spurs boss spoke to reporters today, and shared how watching Messi’s work-rate for Barcelona last night made it even more difficult to accept the performance of his players on Tuesday night, as quoted by Football.London:
“Not what happens when he has the ball, but when he doesn’t have the ball he has unbelievable character, how he works for the team. We are talking about Lionel Messi, who has won everything, that is a massive example. That is why it is so painful to start the game like we started the semi-final against Ajax.”
Tottenham are still not out of the tie, however, and if they are on their best form in Amsterdam, they still have every chance of going through to the final of the competition.
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