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By Martin Graham | 25th Apr 2023
Tottenham boss Cristian Stellini has apologised to the Spurs fans after an embarrassing display that saw them lose 6-1 to Newcastle United.
With two sides in the race for Champions League spots facing off directly, many expected an interesting and closely-contested tie, but it was far from that.
In less than 25 minutes, Newcastle were already 5-0 up and even had chances to make it up to seven. Spurs looked completely out of their depth, so much that goalkeeper Hugo Lloris had to be taken off at half time.
It was the first time in nearly 20 years that Spurs had conceded nine goals in the space of two Premier League games, a result that prompted nothing but a sincere apology from the manager.
Stellini apologises after embarrassing display
Speaking to SPURSPLAY pitchside at St James’, Cristian told us: “First of all, I apologise to everyone, because the start of this performance was really, really unacceptable.
“We have to analyse, take a breath, and understand what happened from the start in an important game like today… we have to take a breath and don’t speak too much. The best thing we can say is that we apologise to everyone, the second is to analyse why, and if the change of system affected this performance, because the performance in the first 25 minutes was really bad.”
Asked what was said at half-time, Cristian replied: “We didn’t speak a lot. We changed the system and the only thing we could say was that we had to play much better in the second half and prepare for the next game. I didn’t want to lose the second half. It was important to find a bit of confidence, if you can, after a game like this.”
That next game is Manchester United at home on Thursday evening (8.15pm). “Now, we have to be responsible,” added Cristian. “We have to go back to our stadium, back after this performance. We have to throw this feeling away, immediately.”
Tottenham goalkeeper and captain Hugo Lloris had to come off at half time and also issued an apology to the club’s supporters, after labelling his side’s performance embarrassing.
“It’s very embarrassing and the first thing is probably we should apologise to the fans who travelled and the fans who watched the game,” Lloris told Sky Sports.
“Obviously, we didn’t show a great face today. I think we could not match the performance of the Newcastle players.
“We were late in all aspects of the game and we completely missed the first part of the game and obviously the second half is another story. But it’s really painful today.”
Martin Graham is an MFF sports writer
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