Tottenham 2 Roma 3: Mauricio Pochettino fumes as Spurs are edged out in thrilling end to ill-tempered tie
The North London side suffered an injury-time defeat having fought back from two goals down in a feisty battle at Red Bull Arena
MAURICIO POCHETTINO got in a slanging match with officials as Spurs crashed to Roma in a frenetic finish.
Poch was furious with some heavy handed tackles from the Serie A side, who snatched a late victory through Marco Tumminello just when Tottenham looked to have earned a draw.
A bad tempered, anything but friendly clash exploded in the second half when a frustrated Harry Kane clattered into Roma’s Kostas Manolas.
Players from both sides had to be kept apart while Poch launched into a heated argument with the fourth official who appeared to motion to security staff that the White Hart Lane chief should be sent to the stands.
He wasn’t having it though and sat firm - but after seeing his men badly under-perform here, Pochettino may have wished to have been sent somewhere else.
Poch said: "It was a situation that we were talking in Spanish, not in English. But I believe it was a chat that ok, we were talking and started to speak louder.
"But for me then I said to him, 'I apologise'. Maybe a bit nervous for some situation on the pitch.
"But he wanted me to be sent off, but I said 'come on that's no sense because we were talking in Spanish and nobody could understand us'.
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"I said 'Come on, all that happened there stayed on'. It was all good I think. It was not a problem. I apologised to him about my behaviour."
Kane had his moments and twice went close but Dele Alli and fellow creative spark Mousa Dembele, who smacked the bar in the first half, were both disappointing and never got going.
Harry Winks pulled one back on 86 minutes and when Vincent Janssen steered home in stoppage time, Spurs looked to have bagged a draw out of nowhere.
But the Italians kept going and within seconds , up popped Tumminello at the other end to stun Spurs fans still celebrating the leveller.
Boss Poch aimed to back up chairman Daniel Levy’s claims that Spurs’ youth products are so good , the club don’t need to splash the cash this summer.
Well, it’s only pre-season and Cameron Carter-Vickers, Josh Onomah and Kyle Walker-Peters only got 45 minutes. But it was just left-back Walker-Peters who impressed with the other two struggling make their mark on a game which had been pretty much bossed by a decent looking Roma side.
Former Manchester City hitman Edin Dzeko had given Carter-Vickers , 19, a few problems and the Spurs stopper was booked in the first half for a clumsy tackle on the Bosnian.
It was a bad tempered match with tackles flying in all over the place and tempers really began to boil over at the start of the second half.
Kane , still furious not to have been given a penalty , smashed into Kostas Manolas which sent the Italians mad. Boss Pochettino then became embroiled in a lengthy argument with the fourth official who appeared to try and send the Argentine off.
But Poch stood firm even if tensions continued to run high. Roma were ahead after just 12 minutes when Perotti rolled home a penalty after Carter-Vickers handled in the box.
Ref Hilario Grajeda didn’t give it at first but after the linesman gave him the nod, Perotti did the rest.
Spurs just couldn’t get going with Kane and Alli kept very quiet. Kane went close late on before Dembele hit the bar but it was a 45 minutes to forget for the strong Spurs contingent who packed out Red Bull Arena.
