´So difficult´ after red card, says Dawson

Tottenham captain Michael Dawson admits Peter Crouch’s red card made life hard for his team in their demoralizing 4-0 loss to Real Madrid.

The Spurs striker was sent off for a second bookable offence after just 15 minutes of the quarter-final first-leg on Tuesday, with Tottenham already a goal down at the Bernabeu.

Emmanuel Adebayor completed his brace early in the second half before goals from Angel di Maria and Cristiano Ronaldo all but ended the tie.

Dawson said Crouch’s early exit made Tottenham’s task a hard one.

“We go away disappointed. We’ve got to pick ourselves up because we’ve got to put in a performance next week,” he told Sky Sports.

“After going down to 10 men early on it was so difficult.”

Spurs appeared to have settled defensively for most of the first half, but Real Madrid took control in the second period.

Dawson acknowledged the superlative strikes from di Maria and Ronaldo.

“We defended well after giving the early goal away, we got blocks in,” Dawson said.

“To give another goal away was disappointing and then they scored two top-class goals.”

“The White Hart Lane faithful will be there next Wednesday and we’ve got to go out and give it our all.”

Real Madrid midfielder Xabi Alonso said the tie was not over, despite his side’s massive advantage.

“(It’s) not even close (to over),” he said.

“We have seen so many great comebacks. Hopefully this won’t be the case, but we have to be ready.”