Tottenham manager Antonio Conte has bemoaned his side’s lack of killer instinct in front of goal for their Champions League loss against Sporting Lisbon on Tuesday.
Spurs were seconds away from claiming a point in Lisbon before falling to a Paulinho header in the 90th minute, followed by a brilliant solo goal by Arthur Gomes, which ensured all three points remained in Portugal.
Conte’s men had the same number of shots at goal as Sporting but couldn’t breach Antonio Adan’s goal.
After the game, the Italian said, “The Champions League level is very high. You have to reduce the mistakes because in the end you can pay, and we paid, we paid a lot.
🗣 "Tonight we paid, we paid a lot."
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) September 13, 2022
Antonio Conte felt Tottenham were punished for making too many mistakes against Sporting Lisbon pic.twitter.com/z5XU5KNi5g
“Now, instead of a draw, we are talking about a loss against a team used to playing in this competition. It’s a pity.
“‘All of the players know the level is an important level, and you have to continue to improve yourself. A draw would have been more fair but Sporting were good to take their moment. We could not score and tried to win the game and then in the last 10 minutes we could have done much better.”
This was the first time Sporting claimed a win against English opposition in their Champions League history, while Spurs lost their unbeaten streak in all competitions this season.
Tottenham will look to get back to winning ways when they host Leicester in the Premier League this Saturday in London.
