London: Mauricio Pochettino lamented the self-inflicted “handicap” of a sloppy early concession to Barcelona from which his Tottenham side struggled to recover, as a wild 4-2 defeat left their Champions League hopes hanging by a thread.
The Spurs full-back, Kieran Trippier, failed to cut out a second-minute ball from Lionel Messi and, when Hugo Lloris bolted ill-advisedly from his line, Jordi Alba squared for Philippe Coutinho to score.
It was a night when Messi thrilled Wembley with two goals and two further shots that hit the post but also one in which Tottenham refused to accept defeat. They even had a chance for 3-3 through Lucas Moura before Barcelona wrapped up the win late on.
Pochettino praised the fighting spirit of his players but he would dwell afterwards on the Lloris error for the opening goal. “If you watch football and understand it you will know how hard it is to come out of the dressing room and find yourself 1-0 down so early,” he said. “It’s so difficult after this for the team to feel to confident to play. It’s so tough.
“When you play at this level, you can’t concede these type of chances. In the second half, we were very competitive and did everything we could to try to come back.”
Tottenham managed to keep Messi away from goal in the first half but he terrorised them after the interval. Barcelona had arrived on the back of three matches without a win in La Liga only to show their class.
They have six points from their opening two Group B ties while Spurs have zero, having lost their opening match at Internazionale. Next up for them is the double-header against PSV, with the first meeting in Eindhoven on 24 October.
“Messi had more space in the second half and that is difficult to stop,” Pochettino said. “It is unbelievable how he runs. Come on, move on, because in the first half, we conceded in the first minutes. We played with the handicap of conceding after one minute.
“Our players were heroes because they were chasing the game against Messi, Suarez, Coutinho. Lucas Moura could have equalised. Then you would have said we are heroes and the manager is the best in the world.
“We need to play four games still and we have it in our hands to be in the next stage. It will be tough because they are must-win games. We still think the same — that all is possible.”
Barca defender Alba said: “Messi eats at his own table, he plays on another level to the rest.
“When Leo goes on a run, all the rest of us can do is grit our teeth. He is the best in the world and he makes all of us a little bit better.
“If we played like this every day then we’d win every competition every year,” said Alba.
“If we do things in the right way and work as a team it’s very difficult to beat us. If we all fight for the same objective the results will come.”
