Football
Dan Kilpatrick, Tottenham Correspondent 6y

Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino: Status means nothing in FA Cup

Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino said the wealth and status of a club was irrelevant in the FA Cup after Spurs were held to a 2-2 draw at Rochdale on Sunday.

Spurs now face Rochdale, bottom of League One, in a fifth-round replay at Wembley after Steve Davis scored a stoppage-time equaliser to deny the Londoners victory.

Ian Henderson had given the underdogs the lead, but full debutant Lucas Moura equalised and an 88th-minute Harry Kane penalty looked to have put Spurs into the quarterfinals.

And Pochettino, whose team had drawn 1-1 at League Two Newport County in the previous round before winning a Wembley replay, said: "That is the FA Cup. That happens. For us, it's the second time in a row.

"That is football. It's so difficult to assess because everyone was watching a Premier League team against a League One team.

"But it is not like this. When you play this type of competition, it's one team against another team. The level of the team is not important. We can see [that] with Newport, and again today.

"The good news is that we are still alive and we have the possibility to play again at Wembley."

Spurs' Premier League game against Crystal Palace has been moved from next Monday to Sunday at 12 p.m. to accommodate the replay, and Spurs' players and staff will have two days off ahead of a run of five games in 15 days that starts at the weekend.

The draw at Rochdale's Spotland ground followed a 2-2 Champions League draw away to Juventus on Tuesday.

"It's a different competition," Pochettino said. "You know the FA Cup is like this. You are aware of what happened, the circumstances are completely different.

"I think the team fought, the team gave their best and unlucky that we conceded in the end. Sure, we will compete again to try to go through.

"I think after Harry scored we all believed the tie was won. But I was focused because that competition can always give you some surprise.

"You don't finish the game until the final whistle. But in the end we have another possibility. We have all the squad fit and it's good to provide all the players with the possibility to play."

Moura, a £24.5 million January signing from Paris Saint-Germain, said: "I'm happy -- my first start, my first goal. Of course I wanted to win, but I'm happy with the goal.

"It was a very difficult game, they were very strong and now we need to prepare for the second game at Wembley."

^ Back to Top ^