Hugo Lloris has urged Tottenham not to give up their Champions League place without a fight.
The Lilywhites need to win both their final group games against Monaco and CSKA Moscow to guarantee a place in the last-16, and that’s going to be a tall order given the fact they’ve won just once in the competition so far.
A Europa League place beckons if Spurs finish third, and their goalkeeper and captain has reminded them of all the hard work they put in last season so that they could rub shoulders with Europe’s elite.
“I want to be honest: If we do not go through, it will be a failure,” he said, per the Evening Standard.
“We fought all last season to get here.
“The club are not used to playing this competition very often but we have plenty of talented players in the squad, who are young but have great potential.”
The Frenchman also insisted Mauricio Pochettino’s men can have no complaints if they do make an early exit, adding:
“We all play for our national teams so we don’t have any excuses.
“We need to adapt quickly at this level but have not had the results we expected at Wembley. The important thing is that we are still alive so we can still believe in this qualification, but we need to push ourselves and tonight we will know a little bit more.”
Harry Kane, Mousa Dembele, and Dele Alli will all be assessed before Pochettino names his team to face Monaco tonight, as he won’t want to risk further injury to any of them with a trip to Chelsea on Saturday.
Toby Alderweireld and Erik Lamela are definitely out, so Tottenham have it all to do if they are to beat in-form Monaco, who are being spurred on by the goalscoring of former Chelsea and Manchester United flop Radamel Falcao.
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