Mauricio Pochettino insists his players do not have a psychological block when playing at Wembley. PHOTO/SKY.
LONDON, United Kingdom, Nov 3- Mauricio Pochettino says it was “embarrassing” for Tottenham to lose 1-0 to Leverkusen in front of 85,000 fans at Wembley in the Champions League.
Kevin Kampl struck in the 65th minute to inflict Spurs’ second straight defeat at Wembley and leave their Champions League last 16 hopes hanging in the balance.
But Pochettino, whose side are playing their Champions League home games at the national stadium due to the re-development of White Hart Lane, insists his players do not have a psychological block when playing at Wembley.
“We can put a lot of excuses out now. Maybe if I want to put excuses out I can say ‘yes [we do have a psychological block]’, but I don’t want to.”Tell me one place better in the world to play than here? It’s where football was born. If we don’t show the quality, it’s our fault.”
“There were 85,000 people supporting us today. It’s embarrassing for me and the players too. For me, we must look at ourselves.”
Pochettino added: “We cannot blame Wembley. Wembley for me was fantastic.”
“It’s not just about Wembley being bigger. We were poor again and now we need to find the answers in ourselves.”
Defeat means Tottenham drop down to third in Group E behind Monaco and Bayer Leverkusen with two games remaining.
Pochettino’s side travel to Monaco on November 22 before finishing their campaign back at Wembley against CSKA Moscow, and the Spurs boss thinks his side will need to win both games to stand any chance of reaching the knockout stages.
“We must win [in Monaco], if not, forget Champions League. We must win both games, if not, bye bye Champions League.”
Tottenham are now without a win in six games in all competitions and they face a difficult game on Sunday against north London rivals Arsenal in the Premier League.
Mousa Dembele is a doubt for the clash at the Emirates after picking up an ankle injury in the defeat to Leverkusen, while Pochettino could still be without Harry Kane and Toby Alderweireld.
When asked if Kane could start against Arsenal, Pochettino said: “The result doesn’t change our idea.
“We said yesterday he might be available, but to play from the beginning is difficult.”
And when asked if Alderweireld could be back, he responded: “[It’s] difficult.”
-By Sky Sports-
