Football
ESPN staff 6y

Mauricio Pochettino insists Tottenham 'deserved a lot more' after UCL exit

Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino said Spurs were the superior team over two legs and did not deserve to exit the Champions League, despite Wednesday's 2-1 defeat to Juventus.

Son Heung-Min had Spurs dreaming of a quarterfinal place when his scuffed effort gave them a 39th-minute lead, but Gonzalo Higuain and Paulo Dybala scored for the visitors in a three-minute span to inspire a dramatic turnaround.

Tottenham took 23 shots to Juventus' nine, with Spurs keeper Hugo Lloris only having to make one save late on, andĀ Pochettino made his feelings clear after the game.

"In less than three minutes we conceded two goals -- two big mistakes -- and that is why we are out," he told BT Sport. "In both legs we deserved more. I feel proud. We played fantastic football until that first goal and we dominated.

"Of course we are very disappointed but it is part of growing. We will keep going. But we are very disappointed.

"We created a lot of chances. It is clear that we deserved a lot more. In football it is not about deserving, you have to score goals and not concede.

"They [Juventus] only came to our goal two or three times -- not much -- but they have quality so if you make a mistake they will score.

"We played another massive team. For us it was tough. It was very positive for the future. You need this type of game and experience to build you as a player to compete at this level."

Visiting coach Massimiliano Allegri made changes on the hour mark, bringing on Kwandwo Asamoah for Blaise Matuidi and Stephan Lichtsteiner for Medhi Benatia as Juve reverted to four at the back.

And Tottenham right-back Kieran Trippier admitted the change in formation made the difference for Juventus.

"We had a lot of chances in the first half and put in a great performance. It's a difficult one to take," he told BBC Radio. "[Juventus] changed their formation and they had a lot of the ball, we just need to settle down a little bit.

"The lads are gutted because of the way we started the game. It's a tough one to take. We wanted to come out fast in the second half, but they killed the tempo out of the game."

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