Igor Tudor talked about the astonishment of the 5-2 loss for Tottenham against Atletico Madrid.
The team that are one point above the relegation zone in the Premier League landed in the Spanish capital in abysmal domestic form. They hoped for respite from the battle for survival with the same form that saw them finish fourth in the league phase of the Champions League. That did not happen.
Antonin Kinsky took centre stage on a night to forget with two mistakes that saw Rojiblancos run up a three goal lead after just 17 minutes. Micky van de Ven slipped on the way to the hosts’ second goal, Atletico were 4-0 up after 22 minutes, and a big Richarlison miss immediately preceded the second half strike from Julian Alvarez. It feels like Tudor’s time in the dugout is already up.
“I need to apologise to the fans, to everyone. It’s incredibly difficult to explain, at least for the first 20 minutes, I've never seen in my life, things like this. It’s very strange to explain.
“I’m sorry for Toni also. I need to talk to him, to preserve him, to help him, to help the team. It was not a nice thing, but Toni understands. He's a very good goalkeeper, a very good guy.
“So, we need to stay together now, try to help each other in a difficult moment. It’s very difficult to explain, It's like everything is going wrong, even in the end, this headache with two players now (Cristian Romero and Joao Palhinha clashed heads late in the game), and we're going to see what we do for Liverpool - amazing, incredible things.
“Of course, you understand everything. it's a big lesson. It has unfortunately happened in this big game. We need to be supportive. It's not even about him, it's about us. We need to keep working.”