LONDON -- Mauricio Pochettino says Tottenham's display in Thursday's 2-1 Europa League defeat to Borussia Dortmund proves they can compete in the Champions League next season.
Two goals from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang -- his 34th and 35th of the campaign -- sealed a round-of-16 second leg victory for Dortmund, who eased into the quarterfinals 5-1 on aggregate, following their 3-0 win in Germany last week.
Dortmund have competed in the Champions League in the previous four campaigns and second-place Spurs are on course to join them in next season's competition.
Before the first leg, Pochettino said many of Dortmund's stars would be at home at Barcelona or Real Madrid, and the Spurs head-coach felt his young's side's improved display at White Hart Lane proves they are ready to compete with Europe's best.
"I am disappointed because we are out of the Europa League but we need to take positive things. We learn a lot from this tie. We played against a team at Champions League level and for that we take positives," Pochettino told a news conference.
"In the first leg we didn't play well, we didn't compete how we normally compete. But today, from the beginning of the game we showed we can compete at this level."
Spurs' hopes of overturning a three-goal deficit always appeared slim but the tie was finished as a contest when Aubameyang picked up Erik Lamela's sloppy pass and scored a brilliant 25-yard strike after 24 minutes.
Pochettino added: "I am disappointed because I think the moment we dominated the game, and it was unbelievable that Aubameyang scored a great goal. And then it was difficult for us because it killed our hopes of coming back into the tire. We feel disappointed but proud of the players for an amazing effort and now we need to be ready for Sunday."
Ben Davies was replaced by Danny Rose after 13 minutes and the Welshman is likely to miss Sunday's match with Bournemouth after Pochettino confirmed he had suffered concussion after a first half collision with Hugo Lloris, while Eric Dier has a "knock."
"Ben is OK now. We need to assess him in the next few days. He got a knock in his face and after the knock he came into the pitch again, started to feel dizzy and we took him off as a precaution. But now he feels good," said Pochettino, before confirming that Davies had been tested for concussion by the medical staff.
"He [Dier] has a knock but we hope he will be OK for the weekend."
Pochettino was relieved to come through the tie without any serious injuries, however.
"It's important because we are in a period after eight months where we start to compete in the season. It's tough. We need to look after all the players. It's true I am happy because all finished the game in a good condition and now it's important to be ready for Sunday. We have another tough game Sunday. The Premier League is tough, it pushes you to give your best and for that we need to arrive fresh to compete and take the three points."
Spurs now have only the Premier League run-in to focus on and with eight games remaining they trail leaders Leicester City by five points, with a first title since 1961 in their sights.
Pochettino continued: "Now we have eight games to play in the Premier League. We need to try to win every game. We need to start on Sunday. We are in a position where we can fight for everything and we need to try now to focus on the Premier League and try to win every game. This is our intention."
Dortmund manager Thomas Tuchel felt the aggregate scoreline did not flatter his side.
When asked if 5-1 was fair, he said: "I think so and that makes me proud because I think this was a deserved win.
"We could have scored more in our home game, we were very dominant there, and we could have scored today even more with the transition game and the counter-attacks, and so in the end it's 5-1 and that means a lot for us, to beat Spurs, second in the Premier League, in both legs.''
PA Sport contributed to this report.