Tottenham Hotspur have it all to do in the second leg of their Europa League last-16 tie against AZ Alkmaar after losing the first leg.
Spurs fell to a 1-0 defeat at the AFAS Stadium on Thursday night following an unfortunate Lucas Bergvall own goal.
Bergvall accidentally put the ball in the back of his own net in the 18th minute, leaving Tottenham with plenty of time to get back into the game.
However, Spurs barely troubled the opposition goalkeeper, mustering just one shot on goal throughout the whole of the game.
Les Ferdinand spoke on TNT Sports after the game as he disagreed with something Ange Postecoglou told the press at full-time.
Les Ferdinand wishes Ange Postecoglou hadn’t spoken about AZ pitch
After the game, Postecoglou told TNT Sports that “it was a tricky pitch and we really didn’t handle it well”.
And while Postecoglou admitted it was a “combination of things”, with his team not really at the races, Ferdinand said he wished the Spurs boss had not spoken about the pitch.
“I wish he hadn’t said that,” Ferdinand said. “We’re not there, so I don’t know what the pitch is like. They [AZ] seemed to play alright on it, they seemed ok on it.
“He said before the game, we want to be aggressive, we want to be in their faces, and we saw none of that. He alluded to it, he said we weren’t good enough.”
“I’m not sure I would blame the pitch for the problems that Spurs had.”
To make things worse for Tottenham, striker Dominic Solanke had to come off late on with a knock, though Postecoglou went on to say he didn’t think it was a serious issue.
Son Heung-min’s brutal verdict on Tottenham display against AZ
Tottenham captain Son Heung-min did not pull any punches when it came to assessing how his team did on the night.
“That was nowhere near where we should perform,” Son said. “It’s very disappointing that we performed like this, including me.
“It’s a big wake-up call as next week is the biggest game of the season. It was sloppiness and not performing the way we should.
“Everybody is disappointed with their individual performance and team performance.
“No excuses, it was not good enough. We have to be much, much better next week.”
Tottenham are next in action this Sunday when they host Bournemouth in the Premier League, the game scheduled to kick off at 2pm.
Spurs then play the second leg of their Europa League last-16 tie against AZ on Thursday 13 March (8pm kick-off) at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
