Lucas Moura has revealed the angry half-time rant of Mauricio Pochettino which has inspired them to come back fighting against Ajax in the Champions League.
Tottenham were 1-0 down at half-time in their first leg with the Dutch side on Tuesday and Moura revealed Pochettino “touched their minds” with his team talk.
The Brazilian forward told the Express: “Were voices raised? Yes, you know Mauricio. He loves to touch our minds and to motivate, he is so good at this. That’s why we changed in the second half and we played much, much better.”
Moura believes that after Pochettino’s fired up rant anything is possible: “Run, fight. Like I said, we can go there, I believe in my team-mates, let’s rest well now, prepare for the next game and believe always.”
“Hopefully when we go there we will score a lot of goals and get the qualification. That would be amazing for us and all the Tottenham fans.”
OPINION
Mauricio Pochettino had every right to be angry with his players. In a game with such magnitude as a Champions League semi-final, the Argentine would have been disappointed with his players start and reaction to how their opponents shaped up. Despite just how bad Spurs were in the first half specifically, this was down to Ajax being able to exploit a poor tactical set up, now Spurs know what to expect, they will surely come out fighting from the first whistle in Amsterdam. No one would have expected Tottenham to even get to this stage during the Manchester City tie so Moura is right to believe in his sides ability. They definitely have goals in their side and with the return of Heung Min Son, their attacking options instantly become a million times better. Only a handful of people will have written Pochettino’s side off already and they will definitely come out fighting come the second leg and cause their young opponents Ajax, a lot of problems.