Joao Palhinha has told his Tottenham teammates they must be "much more calm" when going behind in games.
The 30-year-old scored a last-gasp equaliser for Spurs against Wolves on Saturday, although Vitor Pereira's side dominated large periods of the game. The Lilywhites could have gone second and two points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool with a sixth win in nine matches under new boss Thomas Frank, but were instead indebted to Palhinha’s curled finish in the fourth minute of stoppage time to rescue a 1-1 draw.
Bayern Munich loanee Palhinha was impressed with Tottenham’s first-half display – where Mohammed Kudus had a close-range header tipped onto the crossbar by Sam Johnstone and another effort ruled out for offside. Lucas Bergvall also fired a 12-yard volley over.
Bottom-of-the-table Wolves reacted at half-time with Pereira going back to his trusted 3-4-2-1 formation and they went ahead in the 54th minute when Santiago Bueno tapped in after Guglielmo Vicario had denied Ladislav Krejci from a corner. Frank made multiple substitutions and tactical tweaks after the deadlock had been broken, but Tottenham struggled to fashion clear-cut opportunities until Pape Sarr teed up Palhinha to find the bottom corner from 18 yards for his third goal of the season to earn a point.
“I think it’s mandatory to win these games. I think we give everything and we fight until the last moment – everyone on the pitch. We try to score, try to get the draw but it is a sad draw in my opinion and we wish much more from this game,” Palhinha reflected.
“I think we did a really good first half and when we suffer the goal, we start to drop a lot in my opinion. We didn’t have the patience in the right moments when we need to find the good way to score and we need to be much more calm in these moments because it will be key for us.
“We will not start winning all the games, we know even for the future, but when we start to lose 1-0 the game, we need to be much more calm on the ball and especially try to create more chances.
“Yeah it’s a result that for me feels like a loss. I said before that these are the games that are mandatory to win, especially in our home, but now we need to focus on the Champions League.”