Tottenham defender Toby Alderweireld: We need to take our chances if we want to win in Europe

Belgian battle: Anderlecht overcame Spurs after the visitors fluffed their chances
VIRGINIE LEFOUR
Tom Collomosse23 October 2015

Toby Alderweireld admits Tottenham must become more ruthless if they are to make progress in the Europa League.

Spurs wasted a number of early chances in Thursday’s game against Anderlecht and paid the price as the Belgians recovered from Christian Eriksen’s early goal to win 2-1.

That leaves Spurs second in a tight Group J, where leaders Monaco – with five points – are only two points above bottom club Qarabag. For the time being, Tottenham’s hopes of taking control of the group have vanished and Alderweireld rued their inefficient performance in attack.

“It’s a matter of form,” he said. “We have the players who can score a goal but it’s about a little bit of belief. I think it will come. We create chances but in terms of scoring we’re not at our best level so that’s something we have to improve.

“If you take the lead and then have chances to make it 2-0 or 3-0, you have to take them because in Europe you don’t get a lot of chances and that’s the thing we’re missing at the moment. If we had scored again at 1-0 up against Anderlecht, the game would have been over.”

This stumble could have consequences for Spurs’ domestic form. Next month, they have three derbies against Arsenal, West Ham and Chelsea.

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In the week before the Chelsea game, Spurs have a 6,000-mile round trip to Baku, Azerbaijan, to face Qarabag and they will now have to take a strong squad for that game.

Alderweireld added: “We have to get three points against Anderlecht at White Hart Lane in a couple of weeks.”

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