Mauricio Pochettino: Tottenham must take positives from Europa League loss

By James Walker-Roberts

Image: Mauricio Pochettino (C) saw his Spurs side beaten at White Hart Lane

Mauricio Pochettino insisted Tottenham must take the positives from their Europa League exit as they turn all their attentions to the Premier League.

Spurs lost the second leg of their last-16 tie 2-1 to Borussia Dortmund at White Hart Lane on Thursday evening to bow out 5-1 on aggregate.

Their focus now shifts entirely to the league, where they are five points behind leaders Leicester with eight games of the season left to play.

"We are disappointed, but we need to take some positives," said Pochettino. "We learnt a lot in the tie. We played against a team at Champions League level.

"We didn't play well in the first leg, we didn't compete in the way we normally did, but in the second leg we showed we can compete at this level, we improved our performance.

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"We have eight games left in the season and we need to try to win every game. We are in a position to fight for everything. Now the focus is on the Premier League and try to win every game. This is our intention."

Spurs had a mountain to climb against Dortmund after losing the first leg 3-0 and the tie was soon put out of reach as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored for the Germans after 24 minutes.

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Image: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored both goals for Dortmund

Aubameyang added a second after the break and all Spurs could muster in response was a consolation from Heung-Min Son.

"It was a good test," said Pochettino. "We can see our level and the depth of our squad, which is important to take steps for the future, but for the Europa League and Champions League to fight for different competitions in the same season we need to improve.

"We need to improve the squad like all teams, we are very young, it was a good tie to see the level in Europe. We competed with a team that is Champions League level."

Image: Ben Davies collided with Hugo Lloris in Tottenham's last-16 tie

Harry Kane did not feature for Spurs but there was an injury concern for Ben Davies, who suffered concussion after an early collision with goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.

However, Pochettino said: "Ben is OK. We need to assess him in the next few days. He got a knock in the face, came onto the pitch and felt dizzy and we took him off for precaution."

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