Crouch targets improvement in Europe
Tottenham striker Peter Crouch said that his team must become better at protecting leads in Europe this season. His comments came after Spurs failed to protect a two-goal lead against Werder Bremen on Tuesday.
Tottenham shocked Bremen by forcing Petri Pasanen to direct Gareth Bale's cross into his own net after 12 minutes at the Weserstadion. Six minutes later, Crouch's towering header doubled Spurs' lead.
The Londoners, who stood to benefit from Bale's attacking surges throughout the game, continued to pressure Bremen in an inspired first half display, but goals from Hugo Almeida and Marko Marin on either side of half-time saw the Germans fight back to earn
a 2–2 draw.
"You have to defend well and ride out that storm. I think the disappointing thing was the goal just before half-time," Crouch told the Evening Standard. "That gave them hope and made their half-time team-talk a lot easier."
After Marin's equaliser, Bremen looked more likely to get in front than Harry Redknapp's side. The Germans kept possession efficiently while Spurs had to sit back and defend.
"We needed to carry on what we were doing. We were murdering them at times, certainly down the left-hand side with Gareth Bale, who was fantastic again, and I think we could have gone on and got more."
Twente next up in the group
Spurs can now look ahead to the home fixture against Dutch champions FC Twente in two weeks' time. On paper, it's an easier test than traveling to Bremen, but the pressure will be on Crouch's team to collect three points.
The striker remained confident that Tottenham's performances would improve the further the club gets into its first Champions League campaign.
"We should have kept the ball more and kept going forward – we sat back a little bit and invited too much pressure on but that is something we will learn with experience."
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