Spurs put in a valiant performance last night against a Lionel Messi inspired Barcelona, as the La Liga Champions ran out 4-2 winners at Wembley in the Champions League.
Mauricio Pochettino’s side got off to the worst possible start when an error from Spurs captain Hugo Lloris after just two minutes was punished by former Liverpool attacker Philippe Coutinho. Croatia midfielder Ivan Rakitic then scored with a sublime strike in the 28th minute to send the visitors in at the break 2-0 up.
Spurs duo Harry Kane and Erik Lamela would score for the hosts in the second-half, either side of a brace by the majestic Messi which made it two wins out of two for Barcelona in Group B.
Speaking afterwards, Spurs and England right-back Kieran Trippier admitted Barcelona had been the better side and had deserved their win while also paying homage to the brilliance of Messi who is averaging a goal every 36 minutes this season.
“We’re disappointed to go 1-0 down early on. The game was a bit strange, it could’ve gone 4-1 but then we got it back to 3-2 but it was just that they had the end product – it shows that they have taken their chances.’’ Tripper told BT Sport.
“To go one down is difficult against a side like this but the second half was much better.”
🗣 "I feel blessed to be in this stadium to watch this live. I will tell my kids about this tomorrow on the school run. It's like he's got a controller in his hand." 🎮
– Rio Ferdinand on Lionel Messi pic.twitter.com/PvP6MTOuYY
— Football Tweet (@Football__Tweet) October 3, 2018
“These are the games you want to be involved in, that you dream of playing in. He was unbelievable. When he’s in that form he’s magic to watch.
“Barcelona were the better team on the night but we’ll take plenty of positives out of it. We’ve got another game around the corner, so we’ll recover and see where we went wrong.”