SPURS NOT COMPACENT AGAINST GREEKS

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The Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas has said that complacency was not the problem in the recent Europa league match against Panathinaikos. The Premier league club were taking on the Greek club in the group stages of the Europa league looking to get their first win of the season. However, they were once again denied a chance to victory after they could only manage a 1-1 draw in the match. The Greek club was extremely organised in defence, while also being very penetrative in attack. This combination meant that Tottenham could not get past them despite having much better players in the form of Jermain Defoe, Gareth Bale, and Aaron Lennon.

Panathinaikos are currently 12th in the Greek league and are not expected to finish in the European places this time around. However, they showed that they are looking to make the most out of the chance to compete in the European competition by playing well in the group stages and progressing to the next round. There are currently in a group containing the likes of Lazio and Tottenham, which makes it extremely difficult for them to think about the next round. Michael Dawson scored after just 35 min, but it took a goal from Toché to equalise the match in the 77 min.

“I don’t think we were complacent. We have to give credit to Panathinaikos; they pressed much more and started to gain belief from that, which led to the goal. I think the whole team felt a bit disappointed because the first half was so positive and we were in control of the situation. We were a bit sloppy in the second half. I understand the disappointment at not putting the game to bed,” said the Tottenham manager after the match. Tottenham will now focus on their attention in the Premier league.

BOUMSONG HAS EXPERIENCE

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Panathinaikos player Jean-Alain Boumsong has said that he has enough experience of playing in the Champions League to know the difficulty of overcoming a first leg defeat. Panathinaikos lost in the first leg of the Champions League qualifying rounds at the hands of the Spanish club Malaga 2-0. Only very few teams have managed to overcome a first leg defeat, which is the reason for Jean-Alain Boumsong’s pessimism ahead of the match. However, the player has said that he has utmost confidence in his team and that they will be able to overturn the deficit into a victory that will see the club into the group stages of the Champions League.

One of the main advantages of Panathinaikos in the efforts to overcome the deficit is the home support according to the defender. Due to the fact that Panathinaikos will be playing at home, the home support are really going to be up for the game despite the first leg defeat. Having the second leg at home has always been a huge advantage for teams in the Champions League. Due to his experience in this competition, Jean-Alain Boumsong knows that that tie could easily swing in favour of Panathinaikos.

“You saw the opportunities we had in the closing stages of the game. Those chances will act as a source of optimism for us on Tuesday. Let’s hope that we create more goalscoring moments at home, where we must also look to be more successful in executing our own game plan. We knew Málaga were going to try to make us run and to pull us out of position so I insisted on the fact that we had to be more aggressive,” said the defender ahead of the match. The 32-year-old is also one of the most experienced members of the squad.