Ange Postecoglou provides an intriguing update on James Maddison after been subbed off before HT vs Frankfurt.
Tottenham Hotspur are through to the semi-finals of the Europa League and Ange Postecoglou had plenty to say in his press conference after the 1-0 win at Eintracht Frankfurt.
Spurs played a mature game out in Germany. A cagey first half came to a dramatic close when James Maddison tried to head a Cristian Romero pass over Frankfurt goalkeeper Kaua Santos only for the Brazilian to smash into him. Dominic Solanke stroked home the penalty calmly after the referee was called over to his pitchside monitor to review it.
Spurs were the better side for much of the second half, with a number of chances, and showed a real maturity to their performance to see out the game despite the noise of the crowd and Frankfurt throwing everything at them to take their place in the semi-finals of the competition.
Our Tottenham correspondent Alasdair Gold was among those putting the questions to Postecoglou and here’s the full transcript from the press conference in Frankfurt.
Yeah, I’m delighted with many things, super proud of the lads. Going away from home, a quarter-final against a very good side, you know you’re going to have to work really hard, be really disciplined and we needed to score. We had to show the quality we had as well.
To a man I just thought they were outstanding, so proud of them. In such a big game, they delivered a performance and it means we’re through to a semi-final. I think over the two legs we deserved to go through. It could have been all over in the first leg but we earned the right to be in the semi.
How is James Maddison?
He is fine. Unbelievable courage in that moment to put his body on the line knowing full well that he was going to get a pretty severe knock and I was surprised it wasn’t a red card. Super courageous from him. He is sore but I’m sure that has all been numbed knowing that he has helped us progress to the semi.
Were you pleased VAR helped or annoyed at no red card?
We can be facetious about that but I thought it was a clear penalty. I’m not sure why it needed VAR. When a player wins the ball and gets cleaned out, if that was a defender it definitely would probably have been a red card. It’s definitely a penalty. I don’t think it needed a review. Again, I think we got what we deserved.
How much confidence do you have in this squad now to go all the way and deliver what the fans have wanted for so long?
Look, we can’t get too far ahead of ourselves. We’re in the semi-final and will play a difficult opponent in the semi, but it’s not about my belief in the team. What’s more important is the belief the team has had because after a season like ours, it would be very easy for the players and staff, they could have left me in a pretty vulnerable place in terms of them splintering, but I’ve never felt that (even) with all the noise around our season.
They’ve been so united in believing in what we’re trying to achieve here and that is what gave me heart all along that if we got our own slice of luck in terms of getting some players back that I really believed this team could achieve. That is what keeps driving me. It isn’t so much my belief in them, it’s their belief in what we’re doing and both players and staff have been outstanding. I am the front man for it but they take responsibility for it as well and all my decisions and everything I do, but not at any stage have I felt they lost any belief in me or what we’re doing. That is crucial when you’re having a difficult season, but there is also a season of opportunity there.
After a difficult season do you have a sixth sense that Tottenham’s name could be on this trophy?
No, I don’t think that way. From our perspective we’ve had a difficult season and I think there’s some reasoning behind that was pretty evident that when we’ve got our strongest team out there, a lot of things we’ve suffered with this year I’m sure we wouldn’t have. The spine of our team, at times we’ve been missing Vicario, Romero, Van de Ven, Bentancur, Solanke, all of them we’ve been missing at different times this year.
We’ve got the whole group. It’s not just them, it’s the whole group together. We know that we can be a team that’s pretty compelling against anybody. We’re in the final four now so we’ve given ourselves a chance.
