Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp practically wrote off his side's chances of making the knockout stages of the Europa League after Wednesday night's 2-1 defeat to 10-man PAOK Salonika at White Hart Lane.
After an encouraging start to their European campaign, Spurs' hopes of qualifying from Group A are now out of their hands. The Londoners must overhaul the five-goal goal difference that separates them from Rubin Kazan in the final round of matches next month, with the Russians heading to Greece next month to play PAOK just needing a draw.
"I am disappointed now because we are not going to be in the last 32," Redknapp said. "It's very slim - it is very difficult now. I wanted to stay in the competition but it wasn't to be. Full credit to the opposition, they worked hard and looked dangerous."
Exiting the competition would remove one more obstacle to Tottenham's chances of keeping up their unlikely assault on the title, but Redknapp says he does not want to go out of Europe.
"I wouldn't want to say going out is a blessing. I wanted to win tonight. You want to win every game," Redknapp added.
Sloppy marking from captain Sebastien Bassong gifted the away side the lead. The Cameroon defender allowed Dimitris Salpingidis to head home after six minutes before straying from Stefanos Athanasiadis to gift the striker the chance to make it 2-0 seven minutes later.
Despite fielding the likes of Luka Modric and Aaron Lennon, Redknapp admits making wholesale changes to his side proved costly.
"We started sloppy and didn't defend well. It was a new back four and for the first 10 minutes we started like we did not know each other," Redknapp said.
"The kid handballed it on the line and we made it 2-1 and at that point I thought we would come back and win it, but they got bodies back and it was difficult."
PAOK manager Laszlo Boloni was delighted to see his side progress, and said: "I am really very proud today because nobody believed that PAOK could qualify from this group. Before this game, we knew the power of Tottenham. We knew that even without a few important players, they had a strong squad."
Source: PA
