What Tottenham players did that 'wasn't great' and forced Ange Postecoglou to point out after defeat

Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou says he wasn't happy with his team's first half in their 3-2 defeat to Turkish champions Galatasaray away in Istanbul. Spurs had Will Lankshear sent off and had to play large parts of the second half a man down.

Despite Galatasaray racing to a 3-1 lead, Spurs fought their way back to make it a respectable scoreline and finished the game as the better side. When asked about the performance that led to their first defeat, the Tottenham boss said:

"Obviously, disappointing result. The first half wasn't great. We just didn't handle things well at all, particularly with the ball. We were wasteful and gave it away too many times unnecessarily. That allowed them to get a foothold in the areas they're good at.

“They've got some good players in the final third, and we just allowed that to happen too often. Ultimately, we paid the price for it because I thought, you know, we always finish strongly, and I knew we would in the second half.

“Obviously, going down to 10 men didn't help, but even with 10 men, I thought we probably played the best football we did all game. We got our second goal, had some opportunities to get a third, but I thought we were looking like the better side. So, disappointing outcome, unfortunately, brought on by a disappointing first half.”

The defeat has disrupted what was a brilliant start to life in the Europa League and has left the Lilywhites in seventh place in the Premier League standings. However, they will now turn their attention to the Premier League, where they host Ipswich at home this weekend.

If they win and other results go their way, they could move into the top four of the league table.