LONDON -- Dele Alli apologised to his Tottenham Hotspur teammates and Gent player Brecht Dejaegere after his horror tackle and red card in Thursday's Europa League game at Wembley.
Spurs crashed out of the competition in the round-of-32 after Alli was sent off for his lunge on Dejaegere -- who had appeared to foul him moments before -- in the 40th minute.
The match finished 2-2 to send Belgian club Gent through 3-2 on aggregate following their 1-0 home win last week.
It was the first red card of Alli's career and centre-back Toby Alderweireld told reporters: "Of course he said sorry.
"He didn't mean to get sent off. Two seconds before, someone made a foul on him and he reacted on that, but not to get a red card. I know 100 percent he didn't mean to do it."
Dejaegere limped off in the second half with a bloodied shin, still feeling the effects of the challenge, but said afterwards: "He just said sorry to me and that's nice from him, he's a pro.
"It's football. I saw the images and it could have been much worse. I don't think he meant it because he came to apologise himself.
"At half-time I felt pain in my knee and also someone showed me the image and then my heart was thumping for a few seconds."
The London Evening Standard reported that Alli is likely to face a three-match UEFA suspension, meaning he will miss half of Tottenham's group fixtures if they qualify for the Champions League next season.
Harry Kane's own goal cancelled out Christian Eriksen's opener, but 10-man Spurs looked on course for a memorable win after Victor Wanyama's fine strike left them needing one more goal to progress.
But with the hosts piling forward, Gent countered and Jeremy Perbet scored to seal their progress.
"A club like Tottenham has to go through," Alderweireld said. "But the attitude with 10 men was unbelievable and the defence was solid. We did everything to go through.
"Everyone in the dressing room is disappointed. We can't complain about our performance tonight. It was wonderful and we deserved to go through.
"There were moments in the second half that they did not know where we were coming from. We had chances for 3-1 and 4-1.
"Unfortunately we did not score and, when it was 2-2 with five or six minute left, to get two goals is difficult.
"If you are not qualifying then it is not a blessing in disguise. We are disappointed."