Wednesday 7 March 2018 23:33, UK
Ex-Tottenham midfielder Ryan Mason says his former club have made real progress in Europe this season, despite their Champions League elimination by Juventus on Wednesday night.
Tottenham dominated for long periods of the game at Wembley Stadium, but still lost the second leg of their last-16 tie 2-1 to exit Europe's premier club competition 4-3 on aggregate.
However, despite that setback Mason - who played for the north London club between 2008 and 2016 - thinks Mauricio Pochettino's side have plenty to be positive about.
"I thought Spurs were brilliant, it was just a five-minute spell where Juve took their chance and after that Spurs had a few openings," he told The Debate.
"But it must be a difficult one for the boys to take as I thought over both legs they were within a shout of going through.
"We saw two top European teams tonight and if Spurs had gone through, we would have said they would have deserved it. But unfortunately, Juve managed to sneak through."
All of which is in stark contrast to the previous campaign, when Spurs failed to progress from a group containing Monaco, Bayer Leverkusen and CSKA Moscow.
"Last season, they did not even get out of the group stage," he said. "And now they have gone toe to toe with one of the best teams in Europe over the last three or four seasons, and they were unlucky.
"It is definite progress, though, in my opinion. They went to Juventus' backyard and dominated the game for 70 minutes and I thought tonight in the first half they dominated Juventus.
"And they could have gone in at half-time 2-0 up easily, but it just was not meant to be."
