Jose Mourinho shares what he told Spurs players at half-time

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Jose Mourinho shared – in comments reported by Football London – how he implored the Tottenham Hotspur squad at half-time of their Europa League second-leg tie to play to win through fear of Dinamo Zagreb gaining some momentum.

Spurs have been knocked out of the competition in dramatic circumstances. They took a 2-0 lead into the rematch on Thursday.

And it appeared that they were on their way to the last eight as the second-leg reached the hour-mark still goalless.

However, the tie unravelled from there. Mislav Orsic scored a hat-trick, including a winner in extra-time to put the home side through.

But Mourinho insisted that his players were not caught by surprise as he had prepared them for a fightback.

“I believe that by surprise we were not caught, because before the game I told the players to play to win,” he said, as reported by Football London. “I told the players to refuse a feeling of if we draw or if we lose 1-0 or 2-1 it’s ok. I told the players don’t trust, don’t go in that direction.

“Play the game to be dominant, play the game to win. At half-time even with the result 0-0, I told the players don’t trust it, don’t do it.

“If they score a goal, I told them minute 75, 80, 85, the game is open and then they will believe. So by surprise the players were not caught. So was not a surprise.”

Spurs have big point to prove in remaining months of season

It is a tired cliche that 2-0 can be the most dangerous scoreline. But it proved to be the case on Thursday.

The performance was incredibly poor. And Spurs only seemed to show real intent once the momentum had already started to turn against them.

It will be interesting to see where Tottenham go from here. It has become even more imperative that they push for a top four spot in the Premier League.

This result needs to be used to galvanise the squad as they look to prove a point. A lot of criticism is going to come their way. They now need to do all they can to put things right.