By Harry Veal
13 Apr 2011 23:45:00
Michael Dawson of Tottenham(Getty Images)
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Tottenham captain Michael Dawson praised his team’s performance in their 1-0 defeat to Real Madrid on Wednesday night, but admitted ‘it just wasn’t to be’ as the Spanish side knocked them out of the Champions League.
The North London side put in a much improved performance from last week’s 4-0 thrashing at the Bernabeu, but a second half howler from Heurelho Gomes allowed Cristiano Ronaldo to wrap up a 5-0 aggregate win. However, Dawson tried to take some positives from the game.
“We gave it our all and you couldn’t ask for any more from the lads,” he told Sky Sports after the game.
“First half hour we were well in the game and going to get the goals. Couple of penalty shouts and a goal disallowed, but it just wasn’t to be.”
The club’s first Champions League campaign has seen them beat Inter and knock Milan out of the competition and Dawson was keen to emphasise the importance of qualifying for next season’s campaign.
“Yeah without a shadow of a doubt. We went over there and it was a disappointing night last week, but we’ve come here tonight, put on a good performance and the journey’s over.
“But we’ll concentrate on the Premier League and try to make sure we’re in the Champions League for next year.”
“It’s been a great experience and the lads are hungry for more next year, let’s hope we can achieve that.”
When asked whether or not their experiences in this year’s competition would stand them in good stead for qualification for next year, Dawson admitted he was hopeful that they could make beat Manchester City to the all-important fourth Premier League spot.
“I hope so. We’ve been in a similar position last year as you said, we’ve got a similar run-in and we’ll see how it goes. But the lads will be giving it their all and hopefully we can do it.”
With Harry Redknapp’s side taking on City on May 10, Dawson admitted that it could come down to a play-off between the two sides to see who took fourth spot, although he stressed that they still had to perform in the mean-time.
“Maybe. The same as last year, it was all down to that game and luckily enough we came out on top and if it comes down to that hopefully we can do it again.
“We’ve got some important games coming up before and hopefully we can still be in there and we believe we can.”
