Mauricio Pochettino concedes Tottenham’s gameplan to deal with Barcelona was ‘destroyed’ by Hugo Lloris’ early mistake at the Wembley stadium.
Barcelona took the lead after just 95 seconds in England when Philippe Coutinho fired home from Jordi Alba’s cut back.
Spurs then had to chase the game and were two behind when Ivan Rakitic scored a scintillating long-range strike.
The home side got back into it through Erik Lamela and Harry Kane but Lionel Messi was in good form and his second half brace ensured Barcelona ran out 4-2 winners.
But Pochettino was left ruing the fact that his gameplan was completely destroyed two minutes of the start of the game at Wembley.
‘I think if you watch football you understand from the changing room we start the game 1-0 down,’ said Pochettino.
‘We are a team that needed to win and to concede [so early] the plan was destroyed. It’s difficult to assess the first half because it was difficult for the team to restart and to feel confident.
‘When you start a game at this level against Barcelona you cannot concede these types of chances.
Despite the defeat Pochettino was proud of his players and said his team were ‘heroes’ for battling back against Barca.
‘To play against Barcelona, when you concede after one minute, I think our players are heroes,’ said Pochettino.
‘To chase the game against Messi, Suarez, Coutinho, to be competitive in the second half [they are heroes].
‘If Moura scores the third goal we talk about heroes and the manager is the best in the world.’
