Harry Kane has said that the words of captain Hugo Lloris and coaches Cristian Stellini and Ryan Mason helped Tottenham Hotspur turn around their Champions League fate in dramatic style at Marseille.
Spurs, with boss Antonio Conte suspended and in the stands, looked out of sorts once again in a first half as they trailed at the break in France to Chancel Mbemba's headed goal and were struggling to create chances at the other end. That 1-0 scoreline meant the north London side were heading out of the Champions League and dropping into the Europa League.
However, Tottenham emerged from the half-time break with far more aggression, energy and intent and soon levelled the match with Clement Lenglet heading home from an Ivan Perisic corner before, with the last kick of the game, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg ran through on to Kane's pass and smashed home a shot off the inside of the left-hand post. That left Spurs as group winners and rocketed them into the knockout stages.
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"Great desire in the second half, great mentality. It's kind of been the story of our season so far, we've been more of a second half team," admitted Kane. "There were a few words said by a few people at half-time, that we had to be more aggressive, have more intensity and I think we came out in the second half and did that.
"We got the goal at a good time and after that we had a few chances to put the game to bed. They had a couple as well but to see that go in at the end there was icing on the cake, and a really important goal to finish top."
On what was said at the break, the striker added: "I'm not going to go into all the details but of course Hugo, being the captain, [spoke] and Cristian and Ryan, obviously standing in for Antonio. We've been in that situation before this season, which we're a little more used to than we want to be, but we weren't panicking which is the most important thing.
"We knew it was one goal and we could still qualify and we're a team that always feels like we're going to get chances, especially in the second half of games when teams get tired. That's what happened but full credit to the boys and staff. It wasn't easy not having the manager there but he was a big part of preparing the whole week. It was just a really important win and a great win for the club."
Spurs struggled to create in the first half, their first chance not coming until the seventh minute of added time in that period, when Kane's shot from outside the box tested former Tottenham goalkeeper Pau Lopez. That the visitors improved after the break seems to be the story of their season so far after poor first half displays.
"I think it's always hard to come away from home in a tough atmosphere, knowing that a draw gets you through. It's never easy to come out and go full throttle because you could end up being 2-0 down in ten minutes and then you're in a hole," admitted Kane. "We've got to find a balance between dropping and pressing. At the moment, I think we're just dropping and sitting too deep.
"In the second half we went man for man and took a bit more risk. I think we need to just find a little more patience when we are dropping, and then being able to get out of that deep block and press. Which is what we try to do but we're just not quite executing it well enough. We'll pick the game apart over the next few days, which we always do, see where we can improve and try to take that into the games ahead."
Tottenham's high fitness levels mean that they do have the ability to push on as other teams tire and that was perfectly encapsulated by Hojbjerg's late dash up the pitch to score the winner.
"Fitness-wise we're a really strong team so we feel like we can always come strong in the second half. Just being in that situation there's not too much panic. I think we learnt from the Newcastle game, conceding two goals really quickly really hurt us. So even when we conceded today, we just tried to get in at half-time and regroup and not conceded straight away again," explained Kane.
"That's what we did and Clem with a really good header at a vital time. After that, the game opened up. They had to go for it to try to qualify and we exploited that and probably should have done better with a couple of chances we had, but it doesn't matter now."
The Spurs' players sleep ahead of the game had been disrupted by Marseille fans setting off fireworks outside their team hotel but it was something they were prepared for after previous instances.
"It was one of those things. We expected it, we were told the fireworks might happen. I woke up on the first lot but the second lot I was fast asleep thankfully" said Kane. "Their fans were incredible, we knew the atmosphere would be special and that was with one of the stands closed as well.
"Credit to them, they're doing everything to make sure their team wins. So proud of the boys, coming to a really tough place, the atmosphere was really hostile and we had to find something amongst ourselves, players and staff, and we managed to do that."
Now Spurs can look forward to Champions League football next year when the season resumes after the World Cup and Kane believes that the boost from the dramatic win in France can help the team in these final three games before the pause in club football.
"It was really important just before the World Cup. If we'd have gone out, it would have been a real sting because you know you're coming back from the World Cup and playing Europa League and it's just not the same feeling," he said. "So that was really vital. We've got three games before the World Cup and hopefully we can use tonight to finish strongly and if we can be there or thereabouts in the Premier League and get through in the Carabao Cup, it'll be a really good start to the season."
England captain Kane is not thinking of that winter World Cup in Qatar just yet and he made it clear that that is a mentally the "top, top" players must take to avoid problems.
"I said it before, you try not to think about it. I said the World Cup was going to come round really quickly, and it's come round really quickly. We're in November already and in a couple of weeks we'll be on the plane and playing the first game in no time," he said.
"I think a lot of players have got it in the backs of their minds but I think the top, top players manage to give 110% no matter what. The more you try to think about managing yourself, it sometimes backfires. So me personally I'm just trying to focus on the next three games. Of course it's hard not to think about it but if we can have three good results it will put us in a really good place going into the World Cup."
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