Tottenham produced a brilliant display on Tuesday night to overcome City 1-0 in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals.
Pochettino’s men defended resolutely and did not let the visitors have many chances.
In fact, apart from the controversial penalty that Hugo Lloris saved early in the first half, the Tottenham No.1 hardly had anything to do for the rest of the game.
Tottenham midfielder Moussa Sissoko, who worked his socks off for ninety minutes and helped out Trippier defensively by doubling up on Raheem Sterling on several occasions, has said that Spurs were able to execute the game plan they had heading into the game.
He said that Tottenham wanted to play with intensity as they knew that the City players wouldn’t like that.
Speaking to Manchester Evening News, Sissoko said, “It was a great performance from the team, against one of the best sides in Europe.
“We did things well and followed our game plan, which was to defend well and not throw ourselves forwards too much.
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“We played with a lot of intensity because they don’t like it much when you tickle their ankles a bit.
“We had a plan and it was to be compact, try to be tight on them and try to be aggressive. We needed to try to help each other and try when we can to play.
“That is what we did and they did not have too many chances. For a team like City, that is not normal so we can be proud of our performance.
“We have done what the manager wanted us to do and that is why we won the game. Like I said, we have the second leg in a week or something like that so we have to be ready for that.”
The Frenchman also talked about how the players were shown videos of Liverpool’s and Brighton’s games against City and paid attention to how their visitors conceded chances.
He added, “The gaffer showed us some videos of different teams against them.
“We knew how they can struggle sometimes and that is what we have done. We played well and that is why they did not create so many chances.
“They were videos of different teams. Liverpool, Brighton in the FA Cup semi-final on Sunday in their last game.
“They conceded some chances and that is what we were looking at. It worked for us, so that is good.”
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