Cristian Stellini speaks: “I think we have to compliment Portsmouth because they played a good game and made it a tough game for us,” said Tottenham’s assistant coach to the BBC. “It was not easy to find a way to score. We had the possession and had the game under control so we are happy. Maybe we could have scored earlier but we couldn’t find a goal. After we scored the game was different and it was much better for us.
“We had to stretch them to find a way to score. We tried to move players, get Oliver Skipp into the box, drop Harry Kane [into space] to find a solution and we found it immediately. We have to take care of him because he’s our best player and he’s the captain of England. We have tough games in front of us and Harry is important for us.”
Simon Bassey speaks: “I’m really pleased with them, we limited a top side and made a world-class player score a world-class goal,” said Portsmouth’s interim manager in an interview with the BBC. “Our shape was good, we had good energy and offered a threat early in the game. We tired, which is understandable, but I’m really pleased with the players.
“Tottenham took the game away from Palace in 23 minutes the other night, they can do that to you. But our players limited them to very little. When Harry Kane has to pull that out of the bag, it says something. We probably lacked a bit of quality in our final delivery, we nearly got in behind twice, but we were just on the wrong side of those little moments today.”
