Villa 2-1 Spurs, FA Cup | Ange's verdict
Sun 09 February 2025, 20:45|Tottenham Hotspur
Ange Postecoglou praised the efforts of the players who ‘have given everything’ after we fell to a 2-1 defeat at Villa in the fourth round of the Emirates FA Cup on Sunday.
Starting without the services of 11 players due to injury, we fell behind inside a minute as Jacob Ramsey fired Villa in front. The home side had the better of the first half - although Emiliano Martinez produced the save of the game to deny Heung-Min Son an equaliser - but we hung in there at 1-0 at the break, only to fall 2-0 behind on 64 minutes as Morgan Rogers poked home from close range.
We kept going and finally pulled a goal back in the first of five minutes of added time as Mathys Tel turned home Dejan Kulusevski’s cross for his first Spurs goal on his first start. We managed to get into good positions twice more in added time, only for Martinez to claim the crosses and take the sting out of the game.
Speaking to us afterwards at Villa Park, Ange said: “Obviously, not a great start and away from home, that puts you on the back foot and gave them some impetus in the game. In the first half, we really struggled to cope with that. Having said that, we had a big chance to get back to 1-1. At half-time, I still felt we were in the game. The second half was better, we opened up a little bit, we had to, which gave them some chances on transition, but I always felt we were growing into the game. The second goal makes it tough, but we got our goal and we were pushing until the end. Ultimately, we fell short.”
Ange on key moments going against us - Villa’s first goal, Martinez denying Sonny...
“Those moments happen in games of football, and, particularly in cup games, can change things. At the same time, these players, for two and a half months, they’ve given everything. I can’t be anything but proud of them and respect the efforts they’ve put in. Since the middle of November, we’ve had nine, 10 players missing every game, playing in multiple competitions. Unfortunately, we’ve paid a price for that in the last couple of games in the cup competitions. The players get a bit of a rest now, we’ve a couple of midweeks without games and we’ll get some players back, that gives us a chance to reset and hopefully finish the season strong.”
On hopefully seeing light at the end of the tunnel in terms of players returning from injury...
“Yes, we should be getting some numbers back over the next two weeks, for sure, which will be great, guys coming back will have the energy levels. For the guys who have been doing it, it's been tough, the toll it’s taken physically, mentally, playing week after week, it’s been a tough grind for the lads. Like I said, they’ll get some help now.”
On new arrivals Tel and Kevin Danso standing up in a testing first week at the club...
“Again, it’s been a situation where we’ve had to throw them in, unfortunately. It would have been nice to ease them in and get them used to it. I think Kevin’s been brilliant since he came in, great for Mathys to get his goal today. He hasn’t played a lot of football recently, so, for him to get 90 minutes at this level and score a goal will do him the world of good.”