Dawson and Sandro issue Spurs rallying call
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
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Captain Michael Dawson said Tottenham Hotspur FC "won't give up" despite a 4-0 first-leg defeat at Real Madrid CF, with Sandro adding: "We've got a full 90 minutes ahead of us."
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Captain Michael Dawson said Tottenham Hotspur FC would not be throwing in the towel despite a 4-0 UEFA Champions League quarter-final first-leg defeat at Real Madrid CF.
Harry Redknapp's men came to the Spanish capital hoping for another memorable showing in their debut season in the UEFA Champions League, but an early Emmanuel Adebayor goal followed by Peter Crouch's dismissal laid the foundations for a dismal evening for the Premier League side. Adebayor subsequently added a second before further strikes from Ángel Di María and Cristiano Ronaldo piled on the misery.
"Going down to ten men and conceding an early goal to a top-class team were the keys to tonight's game," centre-back Dawson told UEFA.com. "When you play against a team like Real Madrid, you don't need to do that."
Only briefly did Tottenham reproduce the form that brought famous victories against the likes of FC Internazionale Milano and AC Milan this term – Gareth Bale proving the main threat for the visitors – yet Dawson was determined to think positively as Tottenham look to pose their rivals problems in the second leg.
"It's going to be a tough task, we all know that," the 27-year-old England international said. "Trying to eat into a 4-0 lead will be very hard, but we won't give up. I thought we reacted well to the early setbacks and were still very much in the game at one point. Unfortunately, we then conceded a second which was followed by two top-class finishes. It's never pleasant to concede four goals, but we'll go out there a week on Wednesday and give it our all."
Team-mate Sandro also tried to stay upbeat ahead of the sequel in north London on 13 April. "All we can do is think about the work we need to put in ahead of the second leg," the Brazil midfielder told UEFA.com. "We've got a full 90 minutes ahead of us, it's enough time. We will give our all in order to score as many against them as they scored against us tonight. Of course it will be very difficult, but in our own stadium and in front of our supporters we will go looking for goals."
