Tottenham Hotspur Football Club News

• Nickname:Spurs
• Founded:1882
• Manager:Harry Redknapp

• Ground:White Hart Lane
• Capacity:36,240

Redknapp hails great defeat

18 Aug 2010 - 07:15:55

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Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp claimed Tuesday's 3-2 loss to Young Boys in the first leg of a Champions League play-off was a "great defeat".

Spurs were shocked by the Swiss outfit in the opening exchanges as they cruised into a 3-0 lead.

But Sebastian Bassong's header just before the interval and Roman Pavlyuchenko's stunning drive in the closing stages kept the tie alive ahead of the return leg at White Hart Lane.

"It was a great defeat - if there's such a thing," said Redknapp, who admitted his players struggled to cope with the artificial pitch at the Neufeldstadion.

"At 3-0 down, we were staring down the barrel. We were in desperate trouble. We were all over the show."

Tottenham fell behind to Senad Lulic's cool finish after the ball fell kindly to him inside four minutes.

Young Boys doubled their advantage on 13 minutes through Henri Bienvenu.

Worse was to follow as Bassong was caught flat-footed, leaving Xavier Hochstrasser to run free and smash his drive through Heurelho Gomes and into the back of his net.

"From the first minute, we started sloppily, they hit the post and it went on," continued Redknapp.

"They didn't give us time to settle on the ball. They ran all over us in the first half hour.

"Our plan is to get after them at White Hart Lane. It'll be a fantastic crowd, great atmosphere and we're at home.

"We have to win the game. If we win the game, we have a great chance to go through, obviously, with the two away goals."