Tottenham’s Hugo Lloris Disappointed with Loss at Monaco
After working so hard to achieve Champions League football, Tottenham’s captain Hugo Lloris couldn’t hide his disappointment for how things ended.
For all the Tottenham supporters watching yesterday, it was easy to spot a Man of the Match performance from Hugo Lloris. Even in a losing effort.
The French goalkeeper saved a penalty from Radamel Falcao and produced one of his finest saves in his Spurs career to deny Kamil Glik from point-blank range.
Overall, Lloris came away with nine saves off of 11 attempts on target. To be credited with two goals could be seen as a disservice as Spurs’ defending let the 29-year-old down throughout the night.
After realizing that the north London club were eliminated from the Champions League, Lloris was not ready to shift his focus from a disappointing loss towards a big match against Chelsea this Saturday.
“My mind is not ready to talk about that,” Hugo Lloris said (via Spurs’ official site).
“Our fans, our club and most of all our players had a lot of expectations in this competition. We fought a lot last season to get this Champions League place.”
“We’re very disappointed, very frustrated with the way we played, the way we started the game too slowly, too sluggish. Finally, I don’t think we deserved to win, Monaco were better in a lot of areas in the game.”
Eventually after venting his displeasure with how Tottenham’s European season ended after five games with one win, one draw and three losses — twice getting beat by Monaco — Lloris was able to shift gears and talk about Saturday’s match-up against Chelsea.
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“It’s a big disappointment but we need to keep our chins up because it’s a big game on Saturday.”
In three London derbies this season, Spurs have won seven points out of a possible nine against Crystal Palace, Arsenal and West Ham United.
Win, lose or draw, Mauricio Pochettino has gotten the best out of his players to perform well in these types of fixtures. Hugo Lloris himself knows that this match will be the perfect opportunity to bounce back after a difficult loss.
It’s happened before, not too long ago. Bayer Leverkusen won at Wembley Stadium and the following match saw what was once a aimless Tottenham side play with plenty of energy and came away with a draw.
That single point was the culmination of all the hard work Spurs did to try and get out of their winless funk that had plagued them for a month. It wouldn’t be noticed until the return of the Premier League following the international break when Spurs came from behind to beat West Ham.
Now that Pochettino’s side has once again suffered heartbreak at the hands of Monaco, a London derby against Chelsea is what they need to get things rolling once more.
“I have no doubt about that,” Lloris said. “I said the same after we lost against Leverkusen at Wembley, this is the best type of game to bounce back. The only thing is to digest the frustration of this defeat and look forward.”
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Despite all the draws that Spurs have accumulated — six, which leads the league — they find themselves still in contention for a top four spot and first place.
Picking up another draw won’t help their case as a side who looked to be turning the pages after a 3-2 win over West Ham, but losing back-to-back games would be absolutely killer for the club’s confidence.
Something that they cannot afford at this point in time with November almost over.