Tottenham Hotspur fell to a 3-2 defeat against Galatasaray in the Europa League on Thursday night, but Ange Postecoglou did see something encouraging from his Spurs players.
Tottenham Hotspur went close in Europa League defeat
Very few football fans will be surprised that Tottenham had a difficult night in Turkey against a very strong, very dangerous Galatasaray side, who are unbeaten in all competitions this season.
The game appeared to be beyond Spurs by half-time, with Galatasaray leading 3-1 at the break and looking completely dominant.
The Turkish outfit came out all guns blazing in the second half too, and should have had another handful of goals as Spurs continued to give away the ball and offer their opponents plenty of time and space in key areas.
Tottenham’s task was made even more difficult when Will Lankshear was sent off on the hour-mark, but somehow, the Lilywhites grew into the game at that point, and even managed to get a goal back through Dominic Solanke with 20 minutes of normal time to go.
Postecoglou‘s men couldn’t find the third goal to level the game but can come away with some semblance of pride from their performance in the second half.
Tottenham were the best team after the red card
Speaking to the press after the game (via Football.London), Ange Postecoglou revealed he was happy with what he saw after his Spurs side went down to ten men.
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He said: “You know we always finish strongly and I knew we would in the second half. Obviously going down to ten men didn’t help, but even with ten men, I thought we probably played the best football, we did all game and got our second goal.
“We had some opportunities to get a third there, but I thought we were looking the better side. So disappointing outcome, unfortunately, brought on by a disappointing first half.”
Disappointed not to draw
It’s wild to think that we can come away from that game gutted not to get a point (or even more), after one of the worst performances I’ve seen in that opening 60 minutes.
Galatasaray should have had six or seven goals, at least, but we pegged them back and really took control of the game. It’s just a shame we couldn’t get that equaliser.