Joao Palhinha has offered his reflections after Tottenham fought back from 2-0 down to draw with Manchester City on Sunday in the Premier League - courtesy of Dominic Solanke's brace
Joao Palhinha has conceded part of him had already accepted defeat to Manchester City prior to Tottenham's stunning second-half fightback.
A brace from Dominic Solanke, including a sublime scorpion kick, saw Spurs climb off the canvas and wrestle back the tide to stretch their unbeaten streak to four matches in all competitions.
Honest Palhinha wasn't overly confident of a comeback at half-time, however. When asked what was said in the dressing room, the Bayern Munich loanee explained: "I think just to keep working, even if the thoughts sometimes are probably the normal thoughts at half-time - that the game is lost.
"We are losing 2-0 to City and I think the reaction is sometimes the hardest thing in football, especially against a top team.
"Especially when you're losing 2-0. Like I said, we want to change the results, especially at home. It was a really good performance. I think we should take something more from this game. The reaction was so good and we are really proud of that."
What makes Tottenham's draw with City even more impressive was that they also achieved the feat without injured trio Micky van de Ven, Kevin Danso and Djed Spence while captain Cristian Romero was also forced off at the break due to illness.
Still, Palhinha wasn't entirely satisfied because he felt Tottenham could have prevented both of City's first-half goals.
The former Fulham defensive midfielder continued: "We would be much happier if we won! But I think we deserved it, especially for the second half that we did.
"The two goals that we conceded were, in my opinion, too easy again. But apart from that, what we need to take from this game is the reaction in the second half.
"We tried to win the game until the last minute, so I think it was a tough game with a top team."
Palhinha was particularly proud of Solanke's second, adding: "We saw the clips back, it was an amazing goal. I hope he wins the Puskas Award for next season!"
Meanwhile, Conor Gallagher paid tribute to Xavi Simons after the creative and hard-working Dutchman turned in arguably his best display yet in Tottenham colours.
Gallagher said of Xavi: "Brilliant player, he’s one of those guys that you want in your team.
"He works so hard and he just wants to win. He has a lot of passion to give and obviously a lot of quality as well, so he's only going to get better.
“That’s why you want him in your team, he wants to get on the ball, he'll run forward, he'll create chances, score and yeah, he's great."