Euro reality check for Ramos
07 Mar 2008 - 07:12:37
Tottenham head coach Juande Ramos admitted Thursday's 1-0 UEFA Cup round of 16 first leg defeat to PSV Eindhoven at White Hart Lane had been a reality check.
The newly-crowned Carling Cup winners lost their second successive match following last weekend's 4-1 league defeat at Birmingham City and afterwards Ramos was unhappy with the level of European performance.
Spurs must now travel to the Netherlands next week looking to overturn a first-leg deficit to reach the quarter-finals.
"You could say that it was a reality check," said the Spaniard.
"Against Birmingham at the weekend and now PSV we haven't played as well as we could have. We have lowered our tempo.
"If we want to go through we have to improve. It's true, we had our best 11 players out there and were disappointed as PSV were better.
"Of course I didn't like the result but we still have a second leg and when you lose by one goal it's not too bad."
Meanwhile, Ramos refused to blame Gilberto despite the Brazilian full-back's error on his debut leading to Jefferson Farfan's first-half winner.
Jamie O'Hara replaced him at half-time to cap a miserable debut for the former Hertha Berlin defender.
"I didn't substitute him because he made a mistake," added Ramos. "It was because he has been injured and he needed rhythm.
"Every footballer makes mistakes, what we have to do is support him and try to help him recover.
"We don't blame him for the defeat."