Tottenham’s captain, Hugo Lloris, was disappointed after losing to AS Monaco but is confident Spurs can make it to the knockout stages.
A record crowd of 85,011 at Wembley Stadium and a strong starting XI wasn’t enough for Tottenham as they lost to AS Monaco on Wednesday night.
For Hugo Lloris, speaking with words on how Spurs will be the better team, or using the spacious pitch to their advantage doesn’t mean much if their actions prove otherwise.
“It’s not enough to talk only with words, you need to show the right attitude, more than we showed in the first half,” Hugo Lloris said (via Spurs’ official site).
There were two glaring problems in the first half that doomed Spurs from the start.
The first would be Mauricio Pochettino’s selections.
Starting Dele Alli over Mousa Dembélé at central midfield was not a wise decision. Alli is talented and better suited to play further forward and always attacking the opposition’s defense.
Asking him to play defensively, win the ball back, and then push higher up the pitch was too much for him. It showed after the first 45 minutes that Spurs were lacking an extra attacking threat who can challenge Monaco’s defense.
The central midfield pair of Eric Dier and Alli was successful to a certain extent, but couldn’t help out offensively due to Dele Alli having to help out on defense.
Dembélé’s introduction to start the second half saw Alli finally stretch Monaco’s backline towards the touchline when he moved into a central attacking midfield role.
This saw Tottenham dominate in possession and chances created.
Though, Spurs’ 2-0 deficit in the opening 31 minutes was too big of a hole to dig themselves out of, even with Toby Alderweireld pulling a goal back just before half-time.
One costly mistake by Érik Lamela saw Bernardo Silva capitalize right away when Spurs lost possession (something that was frequent throughout the match).
To top things off, an unlucky bounce that Ben Davies and Jan Vertonghen couldn’t clear away before Thomas Lemar doubled Monaco’s lead, were enough to put Spurs away.
Still, Lloris is not ready to dismiss their Champions League season after just one game.
They will eventually learn from their mistakes and look to get back in the group standings for their final five matches.
“We need to learn as quickly as possible from this game because we still have a chance to go through with five games left,” Lloris said.
“The season is long, it’s our first loss and there is big disappointment because there was a lot of expectation in the Champions League.”
“We fought all last season to get into the Champions League and now we’re in the Champions League, we need to enjoy it, but we need to perform well, today wasn’t enough.”
Tottenham’s next three Champions League fixtures are all on the road, so it will be a while until Spurs return to Wembley.
But when they do, the fans will be ready to cheer them on, except this time they’ll be expecting a much better result. And Spurs’ captain knows it.
“It was a privilege to play at Wembley, the atmosphere was unbelievable and the fans deserved more from us.”
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