Pochettino reveals why Spurs game plan went out of the window against Dortmund

Tottenham went into the second leg of the Champions League round of 16 against Borussia Dortmund three goals to the good.

Mauricio Pochettino had warned his players before the game that they needed to go into the match with the intention of winning and couldn’t afford to sit back and defend their lead.

However, that is exactly what ended up happening as the home side piled on the early pressure and Tottenham defended deep.

In the end, it required some last-ditch challenges from the Spurs defenders and a couple of spectacular stops from Hugo Lloris to ensure that Dortmund didn’t take the lead in the game.

Pochettino has revealed that the team’s plan going into the game was completely different from what panned out on the pitch. He praised the player’s ability to adapt to the situation and said that sitting back was unavoidable given that Spurs found themselves in a tricky position going into the game.

Speaking during the post-match press conference, Pochettino told Football.London, “Yes. Look the plan was different but during the game what happened, happened and we need to adapt ourselves. After the first leg 3-0 you could see the risk Dortmund took during the game.

“Of course when you have in your hands the possibility to be in the quarter-final, everyone believed that the job was done and it’s so dangerous. You need to take more responsibility and care about that.

“Dortmund had nothing to lose and played with freedom. I think for me after five years it was the first time that we’re going to face this situation and the players and team this was new.

“After half an hour it was tough and then we started to play a little bit. We started the second half better and of course when we scored in the second half the players feel that the game was over and we were going to be in the quarter-finals. Maybe we play deeper or gave Dortmund more possession but if you analyse the two legs, I think we fully deserve it.”

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