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Football

08th Mar 2018

“Tottenham found a way to lose” – Roy Keane delivers his verdict on Spurs’ defeat to Juventus

Is he right?

Robert Redmond

“Tottenham found a way to lose.”

Tottenham Hotspur are out of the Champions League after narrowly losing an epic tie to Juventus. Over two legs, Spurs were the better side for large spells. They took an advantage into Wednesday’s game thanks to their two away goals and went into half-time at Wembley leading one-nil on the night after playing Juventus off the pitch. However, you just can’t write off a team of Juve’s pedigree.

The Italian champions struck twice within three minutes in the second-half, with Gonzalo Higuain and Paulo Dybala scoring after barely having a kick in the match to take Juventus into the quarter-finals. Harry Kane hit the post in the final minute, and Spurs were left wondering how they lost control of the game.

On ITV’s highlights of the Champions League, Roy Keane claimed that Tottenham’s “inexperience” cost them and that they failed to kill the tie off, allowing Juventus back into it.

“You could say Juventus found a way to win, but I’d also say Tottenham found a way to lose.” the former Manchester United captain said.

“The experience was shown when Tottenham went one-nil up and they should have sat back and killed the game off, played like Juventus did when they went in front. But three or four minutes of madness cost them. And that’s where the experience counts, it’s vital in these moments. We saw Juventus, when they got their noses in front, there was no way they were going to give that up.

You can watch Keane here: