Tottenham did everything to try to beat Colchester – Pochettino unable to explain loss

Mauricio Pochettino was at a loss to explain Tottenham’s penalty shoot-out defeat to Colchester United in the third round of the EFL Cup on Tuesday.

Colchester frustrated Spurs throughout a goalless 90 minutes, restricting their Premier League visitors’ chances and keeping defenders Davinson Sanchez and Eric Dier busy on the break.

The game went to penalties and Christian Eriksen had his spot-kick saved by Dean Gerken before Lucas Moura crashed an effort against the crossbar as the League Two team triumphed 4-3.

Pochettino assured there was no lack of desire to progress from his side and offered no excuses for their exit.

“First of all, congratulations to Colchester,” said Pochettino.

“They made a fantastic game and of course made it difficult [for us to play] our game.

“We are so disappointed we could not score in 90 minutes and on penalties they beat [Crystal] Palace [in the last round] and that can happen.

“In this kind of competition, the beauty is there’s always something that can happen but we’re disappointed because we wanted to go further. We are out and we cannot explain.”

Cue the MAYHEM! #ColU pic.twitter.com/BhxdU0RfVC

— Colchester United FC (@ColU_Official) September 24, 2019

The result left Tottenham with just one win from their last seven matches in all competitions and their away form has been a major barrier to success.

Since January, Tottenham have won just two games on the road in all competitions: a 1-0 win at Borussia Dortmund in March and a 3-2 victory at Ajax in May.

Pochettino said: “We had some chances but not enough to score and then on penalties we lose the game. Of course [we are] very disappointed.

“We are disappointed because it is important to be in all competitions fighting for trophies. We did everything to try to win today, we cannot complain.

“It was only that we didn’t score and on penalties we lost.”