We were the problem, not Wembley - Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino

02 November 2016 23:53

Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino says his players need to pick themselves up after a damaging 1-0 defeat against Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League on Wednesday evening.

Spurs lost their sixth game in a row at the new Wembley in front of an English club-record home attendance of 85,512 after Kevin Kampl's 65th-minute strike.

Pochettino's men - without a win in six matches in all competitions - drop to third in Group E, two points behind Leverkusen and four adrift of Monaco.

"We must win, if not we can forget the Champions League," he said.

"At the start, it was 50/50 but we need to create more and try and score. There is no excuse.

"After two games at Wembley, Monaco and Bayer, there is no excuse.

"We were poor, they were clinical and for that we lost the game.

"We cannot blame Wembley, for me it was fantastic.

"We were poor and we need to find the answer in ourselves. There were 85,000 fans and we were the problem, not Wembley.

"We are very disappointed and we cannot show the performance that we have in recent weeks and that is the problem.

"We need to improve and we don't have too much time to do that.

"We need to lift the players because they are very disappointed in the dressing room, we need to be critical and put ourselves in front of the mirror and say 'hey we need to improve' and be realistic in our analysis.

"That is very important otherwise it is difficult to improve."

Mousa Dembele was replaced by Vincent Janssen after just 30 minutes when he appeared in pain on the pitch and the Spurs boss has revealed it was not a tactical decision.

Pochettino said: "He was injured. He asked me (to come off).

"It was his ankle, I think he twisted his ankle and that is the reason he came off. It was not tactical."

Bayer Leverkusen manager Roger Schmidt believes playing Tottenham at Wembley gave his team a "slight advantage" as they moved into second place in Group E.

He said: "We have come to a very difficult away game and won. From the start we were courageous and bold, we pressed going forward and in the first half we created a number of chances.

"Playing (at Wembley) is a very special occasion. It is a very exceptional situation and one we looked forward to immensely.

"Tottenham are unbeaten in the Premier League and that makes it very special.

"There was a slight advantage to play here and not at Tottenham because it is not their ground, but in terms of atmosphere it was very good.

"Our minimum aim was to take one point, winning is obviously better.

"We are in a good position."

Source: PA