Tottenham’s interim coach Igor Tudor bemoaned an “incredible situation” which led him to withdraw goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky after just 17 minutes of the 5-2 Champions League defeat at Atletico Madrid.
The 22-year-old Czech ‘keeper made two errors leading to goals as Spurs fell 3-0 behind inside the first 15 minutes of the last-16 first-leg clash at the Metropolitano stadium.
Tudor selected Kinsky, who had not played since October, over Guglielmo Vicario after five successive English Premier League defeats.
“Very rare,” he said of the substitution. “I’ve been coaching for 15 years, I’ve never done this. It was necessary to preserve the guy, preserve the team.”
The Croatian coach defended his decision to start Kinsky.
“It was, before the game, the right choice to do in the moment like we are. With pressure on Vicario, in another competition ... Tony is a very good goalkeeper. It was, for me, the right decision. After this, of course, it’s easy to say that it was not the right decision.”
Kinsky slipped and gave the ball away in the sixth minute for Marcos Llorente to open the scoring. After Micky van de Ven fell over allowing Antoine Griezmann to score the second, Kinsky erred again. The goalkeeper bungled a pass and Julian Alvarez was able to walk the ball into the net.
Tudor sent on Vicario to replace Kinsky, who was applauded off by Atletico’s fans.
“Unfortunately, it happened in this big game, these mistakes. So we paid for this start of the game, it was too much for us,” Tudor said .
“[Kinsky] was sorry ... the team is with him, me too. I was speaking with him. He understands the moment, he understands why he goes out.”
Tudor, who has lost all four matches at the helm since replacing Thomas Frank in February, refused to say whether he should still be at the helm.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
