England legend Rio Ferdinand insists the Tottenham team can take positives despite failing to progress beyond the first knock-out round of the Champions League.
Tottenham were cruelly denied a place in this season’s Champions League Quarter-Finals after being defeated 2-1 at Wembley last night by a clinical Juventus side.
The Turin outfit, who have reached two of the last three finals, came from behind to score two in quick succession, putting huge pressure on Spurs to respond, which the North Londoners were unable to do.
Over the two legs, Mauricio Pochettino’s men were the far superior side and were hugely unlucky to not have gone through, but European knock-out football comes down to fine margins and Juventus’ experience and quality shone through when they most needed it.
Despite the loss, however, former Manchester United and England centre-half Rio Ferdinand, a winner of the competition in 2008, believes this group of young Tottenham players can take positives from the defeat, which will stand them in good stead for the future as they continue helping the club along the path to European stardom.
Speaking to BT Sport, Ferdinand said: “[Spurs] have got to get over these hurdles and start continuing to build this club to be talked about as a top European football club, and that is what they’re aiming for.
“Young players, they need to learn form tonight, they’ll be hurting as we said earlier but you’ve got to find something positive to take out of [the tie].
“They took this very experienced, well run, well drilled Juventus side to the wire.”
Many were touting Spurs as an outside chance to go all the way in this year’s competition, following their emphatic victories in the group stage over Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid, qualifying via top spot without a single loss.
However, as Madrid demonstrated against PSG on Tuesday, it is experience at the highest level that becomes most important in knock-out football, and seeing out results at the most crucial moments is an ability which develops over time.
Nonetheless, as Ferdinand said, the Spurs team will only benefit from this experience against Juventus, and they can hold their heads high after outplaying such a dominant Juventus team across two legs.
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