Spurs must cut out mistakes, says Crouch

Tottenham striker Peter Crouch said the Champions League debutants must stop making mistakes and giving away “silly” goals if they are to have a chance of progressing in the competition.

Spurs left the San Siro on Wednesday lamenting a 4-3 defeat to reigning champions Inter Milan, but were even more frustrated by their terrible start which left them 3-0 and a man down inside the first 15 minutes.

The Londoners conceded after just two minutes, lost goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes to a red card six minutes later having conceded a penalty, and turned around at the break 4-0 down and in disarray.

Only a stunning second half comeback, courtesy of a hat-trick by Gareth Bale, gave the team reason to hope ahead of their next game at White Hart Lane in two weeks time.

“It was a ridiculous start, we had a mountain to climb and we can’t do that against top teams. We can’t give them goals, that’s what we did but credit to us, we came back at them in the second half,” said Crouch.

“We’ve got to cut that out but if we do cut that out we’ve got enough about us, we’ve got some top quality players, I think we kept the ball well in the second half.

“If we cut out the silly goals we’d have had a chance but we got punished for the start we had. It was very difficult having 10 men but we showed good character.”

Crouch paid tribute to Welsh flyer Bale, who was simply sensational in the second period.

“He’s been magnificent for two years, obviously at the top level here at the San Siro to score a hat-trick for him is magnificent,” said the beanpole striker.

As for their next game against Inter in north London, Crouch believes Spurs “showed enough tonight to suggest we can get a result.”

Manager Harry Redknapp also believes there were positives to take from the game.

“I felt we can give them problems in the wide areas. They’re dangerous with (Wesley) Sneijder and (Samuel) Eto’o. The little boy on the left (Coutinho) and the little boy on the right (Jonathan Biabiany) both played well tonight.

“At White Hart Lane we’re a good team, there will be a great atmosphere, it’s a game to look forward to against the reigning Champions League winners.

“The result in the other game was a good result (for us) as Twente drew with Werder, so that didn’t do too much damage.”

William Gallas was also feeling upbeat, although he admitted that he and central defensive partner Sebastien Bassong had struggled eary on.

“We’re still second in the group, that’s a good thing, we’ve still got a chance,” he said.

“In principal we should qualify, whichever way it’s in our hands, starting with the home game against Inter.

“The centre of defence struggled but not just us, you can’t just look at that, that would be too easy, the whole team struggled.

“We started badly, we got the red card which hurt us mentally, we weren’t there.

“The boss needed to find the words for us to come back with more ambition, we didn’t know how to react with 10 men.

“They made the most of that but then we found the answer and became more compact.”

Inter coach Rafael Benitez felt his team had simply taken their foot off the gas when leading 4-0 with a man advantage.

“We won, we scored four goals in the first half, obviously we didn’t want to concede three goals but we need to learn for the future and improve,” he said.

“I was very happy with the first half, we played well but we want to play like this for 90 minutes.

“After the first Tottenham goal I was a bit disappointed, after the second a bit more, after the third I was fed up and needed to intervene to make changes to avoid even more damage.

“When a team is winning 4-0 they lack a bit of intensity, Bale is a fast player but with the same intensity (as he had) we can control him better.”