Manager Mauricio Pochettino has revealed that he had been left delighted with Tottenham Hotspur's "effort" against Barcelona in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
Spurs succumbed to a 4-2 defeat at Wembley Stadium, with the Premier League side fighting back from 2-0 down to 2-3 before Lionel Messi ended the game as a contest in the closing stages.
However, Pochettino has said that he was "proud" of how his players had battled on against the Catalan giants after going behind inside two minutes.
The Argentine told BT Sport: "It was a tough game. When you concede in less than two minutes, it changes completely everything. The emotion becomes tough when you are playing against Barcelona and players like Messi and [Luis] Suarez.
"That is why I want to congratulate the team, because we were always on the game, always fighting, never giving up. I feel so proud. I'm disappointed with the result but the effort was massive.
"But against a team like Barcelona, this type of game when you play at that level, to give that advantage to a team like Barcelona is so difficult to come back from."
Spurs have now suffered back-to-back defeats in Group B, leaving the North Londoners six points adrift of qualification with just four matches remaining.
Darren Plant
