Mauricio Pochettino: Tottenham Champions League bid 'still in our hands'

1/19
Tom Dutton6 May 2018

Mauricio Pochettino says his Tottenham players must "work hard" to make sure of a Champions League spot after Saturday's setback at West Brom.

Spurs were beaten 1-0 by the relegation-battling Baggies at the Hawthorns as Jake Livermore struck in stoppage-time after the visitors spurned several chances.

Tottenham, in fourth, are yet to seal a Champions League spot and they could be just two points ahead of Chelsea if the Blues beat Liverpool on Sunday.

But Pochettino, who will have Jan Vertonghen assessed on Sunday after he came off with an ankle problem, remains confident they can finish inside the top four.

"It's still in our hands so we need to work hard in the next two games but it's our chance to be in the Champions League next season," he said.

At West Brom, Harry Kane was denied by Ben Foster while Erik Lamela and Christian Eriksen were also thwarted by the goalkeeper.

Tottenham now face Newcastle and Leicester in the space of seven days and Pochettino has called on his players to be ruthless.

"I don't believe it's a wake-up call," he added.

Chances spurned: Kane was denied by Forster before the interval
REUTERS

"If we need, after 36 games, someone to say 'hey, come on, we need to win, we need to be professional and play with the right attitude' we need to go deeper and assess why.

"Everyone can see the game, we dominated but if you are not clinical in front of goal it's always open.

"We didn't create enough chances, maybe we created more (than West Brom) but we're a team who need to create more to have the capacity and then to score."

Additional reporting by Press Association

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in