Mauricio Pochettino has revealed that he was more disappointed with Tottenham Hotspur’s elimination from the Europa League than his side being knocked out from the group stage of the Champions League.
Spurs, who had to play their European home games at Wembley this season, finished third in Group E of the Champions League behind Monaco and Bayer Leverkusen.
By virtue of finishing third in their Champions League group, Tottenham qualified for the Round of 16 of the Europa League, where they were knocked out by Belgian outfit Gent.
The north London club lost the first leg 1-0 in Belgium before drawing 2-2 in the return leg at Wembley in February.
And Pochettino, whose side are next up against Southampton on Sunday, insisted that Tottemham’s ousting from the Europa League was harder for him to take than their Champions League group stage exit.
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“I did watch it but no, the Champions League is a closed chapter”, the manager said in his pre-match press conference on Friday, when asked if he was jealous of Leicester City’s performances in the Champions League.
“I am more disappointed to be out of the Europa League.
“That hurt me more than the Champions League.”
While Leicester City are England’s sole representative left in the Champions League in the present campaign, Manchester United are the only remaining Premier League team in the Europa League.
As a result, the Argentine tactician went on to explain why he thinks English teams are finding it hard in European competitions.
“Because in the Premier League it’s so difficult to manage the Premier League, to manage the cups and then be fresh to play against a very good team in Europe”, he continued.
“The whole of Europe, all the players in all the leagues, their most important competition or challenge is the Champions League or, for many teams, the Europa League.
“They rest players to play in the Champions League or the Europa League. That is completely different here.
“Here, the competition means you cannot rest players, you cannot make changes.
“At Christmas it’s the toughest period of the competition when in Europe they are all in Dubai, the Bahamas – I don’t know where they are but you are training, you are competing, you are very focused on playing football and that is how it affects the situation now, in February or March, when you play in Europe.
“I think that is a big advantage for the teams that play in Europe and you realise that for us it’s very tough.”
