Football
PA Sport 10y

Mauricio Pochettino: Tottenham lacked killer instinct at Sunderland

Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino was disappointed that his side failed to kill off Sunderland as they twice let a lead slip on their way to a 2-2 draw.

Spurs dominated for long periods at the Stadium of Light -- leading 1-0 and 2-1 as well as hitting the post and crossbar through Mousa Dembele and Erik Lamela -- before Harry Kane's late own goal caused them to drop two points.

"I am very disappointed and my players too because we played very well," he told reporters after the match. "We created a lot of chances, we managed the game.

"But it's true that we scored the first goal and then in the next action, we conceded a goal -- this is important to analyse. But afterwards, we had a very good performance. We were unlucky because our performance was good.

"It's difficult for me here now to explain the game because it's only 25 minutes since it finished, but I think we deserved more. In another game, you could create fewer chances and win the game.

"Today, we were unlucky because the last goal we conceded, the ball could have gone across the goal and gone away, but before we conceded the goal, we created a lot of chances, we managed the game, we were better and we couldn't score.

"You need to kill the game. Today, we created the chances and we didn't kill the game, and we gave the opportunity to Sunderland to score.''

Spurs needed just two minutes to get their noses in front when Nacer Chadli pounced after Vito Mannone failed to hold Emmanuel Adebayor's shot, but their lead lasted just two minutes as Adam Johnson set off an a mazy run before curling a shot past keeper Hugo Lloris.

Christian Eriksen restored the visitors' advantage three minutes after the restart, but two points slipped from their grasp eight minutes from time when substitute Kane inadvertently turned Jordi Gomez's driven free-kick into his own net.

"That's football," Pochettino added. "He [Kane] was unlucky, but that's football. These things sometimes happen in football.''

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