Tottenham winger Lucas Moura has promised that the players will not throw in the towel and “give everything” until the rest of the season.
Spurs were dumped out of the Champions League after succumbing to a 3-0 defeat at German side RB Leipzig on Tuesday night to lose 4-0 on aggregate and, with Jose Mourinho’s men also out of the FA Cup, their priority now shifts to overturning a seven-point gap on fourth-placed Chelsea in the Premier League in the race for a spot in next year’s premier competition.
Less than a year ago, Lucas scored a dramatic second-half hat-trick against Ajax to book Tottenham’s place in the final of the Champions League but the former Paris Saint-Germain star was unable to repeat the feat as Tottenham look set to end another season without silverware.
Looking dejected and inconsolable in the aftermath of the game, Lucas urged his teammates to keep fighting to turn the corner in the league.
“The feeling is really bad, everyone is sad,” the 28-year old Brazilian told the Spurs website.
“It was a difficult night for us, a difficult moment, but I think we need to be proud because we fought until the end, we played against a very good team and we tried everything that we could but that’s football. We need to keep our heads up and keep fighting.”
Marcel Sabitzer netted a first-half brace to all but shatter Tottenham’s hopes of a comeback before substitute Emil Forsberg added his name to the scoresheet after scoring with his first touch of the game three minutes from time.
Tottenham became only the first side since Chelsea in 2012 to fail to progress past the round of 16 after reaching the final the previous season.
Lucas added: “We started the game very well but after the first and especially the second goal it was much harder.
“In the second half we tried everything, we tried to press them high and get ourselves back into the game but it wasn’t possible. We created some opportunities but we couldn’t score.
“What can I say? We need to rest now because now we have only the Premier League and we need to arrive in the top four. We will give everything for this.”
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