Hugo Lloris: "This is not the time to give up"
Mon 14 March 2022, 12:30|
Tottenham Hotspur
Pitchside at Old Trafford, Hugo Lloris balanced natural disappointment with the result against United with positives on the performance, before turning his attention 'to a big week' for us in the Premier League.
Despite long spells of possession and countless attacking opportunities, we left the red half of Manchester without reward, mainly down to a world-class display from Cristiano Ronaldo, whose hat-trick saw United home 3-2 after we’d come back twice at 1-1 and 2-2 and looked the likelier to go on and win.
There is no time to dwell, though, as we travel to Brighton on Wednesday evening (7.30pm) before what is now a huge derby against West Ham at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday (4.30pm).
“We knew that game could be decisive for the rest of the season, but it’s not the time to give up,” said Hugo. “There are still 11 games to play. We need to keep our hope for the European places, and we know next week is a big week before the international break.
“It’s really important to analyse this game and to understand why we couldn’t turn the result on our side. Listen, we can see the improvement, we can feel the improvement, the players on the field, and it’s not time to give up.”
Reflecting further on United, the skipper added: “If we talk about the result, there is obviously a lot of disappointment, especially after the performance that we delivered.
“We can have some regrets because when we scored for 1-1, we cannot concede three minutes later for 2-1. Then when we come back for 2-2, that’s the moment to close out the game.
“There are different ways to close the game - to reduce the space, to keep the ball, keep possession and to be stronger in the momentum of the opponents. We conceded a corner, unlucky for us, but then it has big damage on the result.
“Again, I think we had a great performance. We need to improve in some aspects of the game, but when you look at the performance, I think you can see the direction we want to take as a team, to come here and take control of the ball like we did, staying calm, we showed personality but, again, it’s difficult to defend the performance when you have a defeat.
“Today, we can be really disappointed, obviously but tomorrow it’s time to prepare for the next game because Brighton is going to be another battle to deal with and we cannot lose any more points.”
