4 hours ago
31
Here's every single word the Tottenham Hotspur boss said after the defeat at PSG in the Champions League on Wednesday night
Thomas Frank had plenty of praise for his players despite Tottenham's 5-3 defeat at Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
Spurs opened the scoring on 35 minutes when Lucas Bergvall sent Archie Gray into the box and his chipped cross to the back post found Randal Kolo Muani, currently on loan from PSG, and the Frenchman headed it across for Richarlison to nod home.
In added time at the end of the first half though a short corner move from the hosts ended with a rocket from the edge of the box from Vitinha, which flew off the underside of the crossbar and into the net.Tottenham regained the lead five minutes into the second half. Pedro Porro launched a deep corner which Richarlison headed into the path of Gray. The teenager's flicked effort was headed on to the crossbar by a PSG defender on the line and bounced out for Kolo Muani to smash home a powerful volley.The lead lasted just three minutes though as Vitinha cut inside from the right and curled a strike into the far corner, this time with his left foot. Tottenham then gifted PSG the lead in the 59th minute. A dangerous pass out from captain Cristian Romero led to Pape Matar Sarr being caught in possession and Joao Neves picked out Fabian Ruiz to sweep home in an empty box. Six minutes later, a scramble in the box from a corner ended with Willian Pacho nipping in ahead of Sarr to poke the loose ball into the net. Spurs were not done yet though. Rodrigo Bentancur robbed Vitinha in the PSG half and the ball broke to Kolo Muani, who ran on and smashed home a second goal against his employers.
More drama followed as Vitinha's shot hit Romero's outstretched arm in the box and with 14 minutes to go the Portuguese rifled home the resulting penalty to complete his treble and bury Tottenham's comeback hopes. There was still time for a red card in added time as Lucas Hernandez flicked out an elbow into former PSG man Xavi Simons' face.
Our Tottenham correspondent Alasdair Gold is in Paris and was among those putting the questions to Frank after the game. Here's the full transcript from the press conference at the Parc des Princes.
Your first words to me last night were that the performance is always more important than the result and that is surely a performance you're very proud of?
Yeah, definitely. I'm pleased with the performance. It was the reaction I wanted from the players, from the team. We've been working very hard on that, the players, the staff, me, to make sure that we responded well and bounced back because that's crucial after a bad performance.
Today I saw more identity of the team I want to create, we want to create. Much more character, personality, aggressiveness. Three words you need to have in any team no matter how you want to do, how you want to play, whatever formation, whatever. Today we saw it, that I'm pleased with.
Of course, I think it was performance that was up there where we could get something out of the game, a draw or a win. So that's a little frustrating thing that we conceded some goals.
Of course, one with a little bit of margin from Vitinha, not top corner but top, top corner. And then, of course, goal three and four. Those are the ones we definitely need to avoid if we want to get something out of here, but something to build on. Strikers scoring two goals. The whole team, I think, all performed well.
Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall, positive. When we played against a decent team where they have one Ballon d'Or winner and I think the next one is playing in midfield. Vitinha. Wow, what a player.
Aside from his two goals last night, did we just see what Randal Kolo Muani is capable of once he gets a bit of a run in the team and a bit of consistency under his belt?
Yeah, definitely. I think today we saw what hopefully we can expect. I think even two goals and assists in every game is probably too much. I would love to get that every single game. But as I said the whole time, he came in late with no pre-season, not top fit, had two setbacks, especially with the dead leg and then the broken jaw. Today we saw more of it. He's still not top fit. So hopefully he'll come in more.
With Archie and Lucas, how impressive is it for two 19-year-olds to come to a place like this and play with that kind of fearlessness?
Very impressive. Two young players, said from the beginning, that I believe a lot in. Archie was there ready before Monaco and then unfortunately picked up the calf injury. So we've been waiting for him to be ready again. Today he showed a lot. The way the two of them set up the first goal was also joyful to watch, but the mobility, technical, ball handling, mentality, character, I liked it.
Tell us a little bit about your formation tonight and especially the way that midfield worked?
As you could see the game plan was to really go after PSG, man to man. If anyone's followed me just a tiny bit, they know that that's what I want. That's much more the identity, that aggressiveness, that dynamic into the team, and to do that against PSG, who are that fluid and that mobile all over the pitch, I thought we needed a more running, powerful midfield across the midfield four.
Just sort of linked to that, the team seems to be much more threatening in attack today. It created a lot more chances, a lot more physicality. What do you put that down to?
I think a combination of a good response, so we had a good performance. We simply just performed better. I also think that it was a more open game. So when you face teams that are banged in, you probably sometimes need a little bit different. Today it was more open and we could use the mobility of Archie, Lucas, Pape and then the two strikers that worked well together.
It's only the second time this season Lucas, Archie and Pape have all started together. The first was against Burnley, what made you decide that all three of them, as a very young trio, could start this game together and all work together?
I think the main bit was a little bit the game plan that we wanted for running midfielders. Not a winger, just because of the dynamic to follow their man-man pressure. That was one thing. And then because I knew when we wanted them in these open spaces, they're such willing runners, that definitely helped in the spaces they created from there.
English (US) ·