Ramos positive despite exit

Football.co.uk · Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 8:07 am

Tottenham head coach Juande Ramos paid tribute to his 'courageous' players after their UEFA Cup exit on penalties to PSV Eindhoven.

Spurs overturned 1-0 first-leg deficit through Dimitar Berbatov's second-half strike to take the round of 16 tie against the Netherlands side into extra-time.

But after a goalless extra 30 minutes, Spurs lost the penalty shootout 6-5 following Pascal Chimonda's sudden-death miss.

Jermaine Jenas had missed Spurs' last penalty of the regulation five which would have sealed their passage into the quarter-finals.

"We can have no regrets because we wanted to win the match on the night and we did that," Ramos told the club's official website.

"It came down to penalties and if JJ had scored, we'd have gone through. It's heads or tails.

"Every player who takes a penalty is courageous, so I can only congratulate those players for their courage.

"Everybody is sad because we did everything we could and came so close to going through, but it wasn't to be."

Meanwhile, Ramos has now challenged his players to finish their season strongly.

"We still have two months of league football left, so I hope the players can lift themselves back up for these games," he added.

"The players are all professionals and know that they can win or lose, so now we have to just focus on the next game against Manchester City on Sunday."

Big Jono · Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 8:23 am

He always seems to speak sense does Mr. Ramos, I think the players were courageous today and unlucky in the end.

Anything we got from this season was a bonus, and to qualify for Europe again and not get relegated is job done.

Now we can focus on building the squad and team and setup for next season to push on and realise the potential of this club/manager/team.

mont` · Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 1:45 pm

Indeed Jono. I'm not too gutted about our loss against PSV because this season has actually turned out quite well, considering the situation we were in a few months ago. All realistic Spurs fans have to be pleased with a domestic cup triumph and the chance to play in Europe next season.

I would've loved to win the UEFA Cup of course, but we gave it our best shot and went out by a very small margin in the end. We've improved immensely over the course of the season and we have to be positive about the bigger picture. Next season will be very interesting.

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Ramos positive despite exit

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