Igor Tudor bemoans bad luck as Atletico Madrid put five past Tottenham Hotspur in Champions League

Igor Tudor bemoans bad luck as Atletico Madrid put five past Tottenham Hotspur in Champions League - 'Everything is going against us'

Igor Tudor's position at Tottenham Hotspur came into even sharper focus after a calamitous 5-2 loss to Atletico Madrid in the UEFA Champions League in the first leg of their last 16 tie on Tuesday night. The Croatian would not be drawn on the decision to take Antonin Kinsky off after 16 minutes without appearing to acknowledge him, and also bemoaned his side's bad luck.

Tottenham Hotspur interim head coach Igor Tudor refused to comment on his future and said "everything is going against us" after a 5-2 defeat at Atletico Madrid.

The Premier League side endured a disastrous first half in their UEFA Champions League last-16 first leg in Spain.

Antonin Kinsky made two early errors and was subbed off after 16 minutes, while the side were 4-0 down after just 22 minutes.

Pedro Porro and Dominic Solanke struck either side of a superb counter-attack goal from Julian Alvarez to keep Spurs just about in the tie, but things went from awful to even worse when Cristian Romero and Joao Palhinha clashed heads in a sickening collision which suggests they might not be available for the next games on the schedule.

Tudor appeared not to acknowledge Kinsky when he reached the touchline, drawing condemnation from ex-Spurs stopper Joe Hart, and speaking to TNT Sports, the Croatian would not be drawn on the matter.

He said: "In moments like this we don't need to comment or speak too much. Strange game, we give them three goals. We start good and then the problems killed us. Very strange, very unusual. It took our confidence that we started with. We had an opportunity to make it 4-2, then we conceded 5-1.

"We apologise to the fans, to everyone. Everything looks like it's going wrong. Even at the end, two players going out. It looks like everything is going against us."

He nevertheless defended his decision to pick Kinsky, while admitting that in retrospect it was a mistake to have given him his Champions League debut.

He explained: "After you see what happened, is for sure the wrong decision, but it was for me the right decision to do, thinking before [the match] because the team [was] changing competition, it was the right moment to do [it].

"Unfortunately what happened, happened, so I changed the goalkeeper after 15 minutes. It's not easy.

"We need to keep working, not speaking too much, focus on what we can do. It's difficult to explain, it's the first time I've seen this in my career. We need to win and stay positive."

Tudor’s position has come under question already, despite his recent appointment after the sacking of previous head coach Thomas Frank and he became the first Spurs boss to lose the first four matches of his tenure, conceding 14 goals in the process.

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When pressed on whether he felt he would be given the chance to keep working on a turnaround, he was non-committal, saying: "It's not about me, to explain too much. We need to stay calm and less talking. Now is not the moment for big explanations. We stay calm and continue."

Tottenham welcome Atletico for the second leg in north London on Wednesday, March 18, and before then face a tough trip to Anfield to play Liverpool this Sunday.

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