Heung-min Son eager for Spurs to learn lessons from Juventus loss in last 16 of the Champions League
Tottenham Hotspur's Heung-min Son scores his side's first goal of the game against Juventus during the Champions League last-16, second leg at Wembley Stadium (pic: Nick Potts/PA Images). - Credit: PA Wire/PA Images
The South Korean reflects on Tottenham Hotspur’s disappointing 2-1 defeat to the Old Lady at Wembley
Heung-min Son admits Tottenham Hotspur must learn from their Champions League exit and come back stronger next season.
Spurs were on course for the quarter-finals after the South Korean’s first-half goal put them 1-0 up on the night and 3-2 ahead on aggregate against Juventus.
But the Italian champions stunned Wembley with two goals in three second-half minutes from Gonzalo Higuain and Paulo Dybala.
And in the dying seconds Harry Kane thought he had taken the tie to extra time, only to see his header come back off the inside of the far post before being cleared off the line.
Son, who was in tears after the final whistle, said: “That hurt, but it’s football. We played well but sometimes football is like this. We have to accept the result but still for me, it hurts a lot.
“What was the difference? Nothing. At the start we played well, we created lots of chances, got to 1-0 and made the perfect start I think.
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“This game we can learn something from, but this is sad news. The dressing room was a bit quiet. We played well, the performance was good but the two goals made the result different and that is the main thing.”
Tottenham’s European campaign, including wins over Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, was a vast improvement on the previous season when they failed to get out of the group stage.
“Football is like this, we are unlucky to be out of the Champions League but we got some more experience,” added Son.
“We remember last season, we went out in the group stage so now we did well, we learned something again and next season we will do better.
“I feel sorry for the fans, they expected more than this and we deserved more than this. But we couldn’t do it. I am proud of the performance but the main thing is the result is not perfect.
“Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund doesn’t matter anymore. I thought we were better than (Juventus) but it doesn’t matter now - they scored two goals at Wembley Stadium.”
