Although the listless defeat suffered from Stoke City, the Spurs are still focused on securing their place in the Europa League, head coach Mauricio Roberto Pochettino Trossero told the press yesterday.
“I think it is good for the club to achieve the Europa League and this is what we are going to try. It is difficult now, but we need to do the last two weeks and to try to win the first game on Saturday with Hull City,” Pochettino told The Guardian.
Stoke City broke its own record in the game against the Spurs at the Britannia Stadium – it beat them twice in a row for the first time in its history. Spurs, in turn, looked tired and disinterested during their game against the Potters, as if their 54 previous games in the season, spread across all Europe, has exhausted them completely. “We were poor from the beginning. We were better in the second half with 10 players,” Pochettino told the press about the game. “We are disappointed for our supporters and for our club. The way we lost the game shows that we need to be stronger, to be ready to compete. In the first half we did not compete. This was the problem.”
Romanian player Vlad Chiriches was sent off in the 51st minute, for his second offence, leaving the Spurs with just 10 players on the field. Although their play has improved a bit in the second half of the game, the team was still unable to counter the attacks of the Potters. The result was a disappointing 3-0. “The sending off of Chiriches is no excuse,” Pochettino said. “We have to be better. We made mistakes for the two goals,we are very disappointed for that. In the second half with ten players weshowed spirit but it was too late.”
Tottenham forward Harry Kane has agreed with Pochettino on his view on the Europa League. He considers it another chance to win a trophy, something the Spurs have made their goal to do. The team will now focus on winning their last two matches in the qualifications to get their chance to advance, and show their worth. Kane considers the Europa League to be basically the same as the Champions League, the UEFA’s primary championship. Both of them are about playing a lot of games and winning them, he said, and playing in the Europa League will help the Spurs to push on to the Champions League.
