Pochettino: Tottenham should pressure referees like Juventus

Tottenham can learn from Juventus by being sterner with referees, which manager Mauricio Pochettino thinks will help their chances in the Champions League.

Juve came from a goal down to beat Tottenham 2-1 at Wembley and secure passage to the quarter-finals with a 4-3 aggregate victory on Wednesday, Gonzalo Higuain and Paulo Dybala scoring in the space of three second-half minutes.

Son Heung-min put Spurs ahead in the first half, but the Italian champions were aghast that Jan Vertonghen’s clear foul on Douglas Costa did not result in a penalty.

Pochettino described how Juve chief executive Giuseppe Marotta berated referee Szymon Marcinak during the interval, stating his own team were too “nice” to make the difference.

“We saw how [Marotta] put pressure on the referee at half-time,” he said.

“They were complaining about the penalty in the first half. Maybe we need to learn how we put pressure on the referee. In this type of game every minimal detail can help you to win.”

Another special #UCL night for @juventusfcen

How did you celebrate, Juve fans? pic.twitter.com/wtq4f94htK

— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) March 7, 2018

On whether Andrea Barzagli should have seen a red card for stepping on Son, Pochettino said: “We complained. We put pressure on the referee but it was easy for the referee to manage us because we were very nice people, trying to help to play a game.

“In this situation, with experience, you have more possibilities to achieve all that you want. That is another game. It’s not only the game playing football.

“Maybe we need to learn, the coaching staff, like our players, how we put pressure on the referee. In this type of game, every minimal detail can help you win the game.

“Juventus are specialists because they have the habit to win and the habit to put pressure on the referee. It’s a club with a culture to try to do everything to help the team.

“It’s the small details and I believe those details can help us to achieve what we want.”