Mauricio Pochettino rues Dortmund advantage
March 5, 2019
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino has claimed it is unfair that Borussia Dortmund have had more time to prepare for Tuesday’s Champions League last-16 second leg.
The north London outfit will take a 3-0 advantage into the second leg on Tuesday night following their superb display in the first leg at Wembley in February.
Dortmund played 24 hours before Tottenham for the first leg, while they then played on Friday night ahead of the second leg.
Spurs again have had less time to prepare as they played in the lunchtime kick-off on Saturday and Pochettino has urged the FA to help their clubs out when it comes to scheduling fixtures.
“I think we need help from the FA, we need help from the Premier League, I don’t know because I am not involved in the decisions,” the former Southampton boss said.
“I don’t know whether to blame the FA or to blame the Premier League or to blame Tottenham because we changed the day because we still not deliver our new stadium or the TV because they wanted us to play live on Saturday.”
Spurs are without a win in three matches in the Premier League and Pochettino admits his team cannot be complacent in Dortmund despite their lead.
He added: “We need to forget the first leg, it’s important to be aggressive, fight from beginning, high tempo, that is going to be the key.
“We know Borussia Dortmund is a great team, top of the Bundesliga because they deserve to be there.”
Due to their home advantage, Dortmund remain 2.00 favourites for the game, while the draw is 3.75 and Spurs are priced at 3.60.
