Champions League final: Hugo Lloris on Tottenham's journey
Thursday, May 23, 2019
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"Tactical discipline and a flawless mindset" were the key to Spurs reaching the final, according to captain Hugo Lloris.
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A FIFA World Cup winner with France last summer, Hugo Lloris can add to his collection of prestigious medals as he leads Tottenham out in the UEFA Champions League final against Liverpool.
The 32-year-old has been on a roller-coaster ride with the club in this season's competitition, but having rolled with the punches to make it this far, the former Lyon custodian hopes Spurs will seize their moment to shine.
On playing in his first UEFA Champions League final ...
I'm proud to play for this club, to be part of this team and this fantastic run, even more so as captain. We know the Champions League is a very tough competition and you really need to surpass yourself in order to reach the final. You need talent, success, tactical discipline and a flawless mindset, which is how we've got ourselves into this situation.
We have to appreciate it and now we're here, we have to give everything to try to win it and that's the mindset we have to adopt. It's a great time for the club, for all the fans, for all the players involved, for the coaching staff. Being involved in a Champions League final is like a dream.
On the group stage ...
We got off to a pretty sluggish start and we found ourselves with just one point after the first three games. But we never lost hope and that's what enabled us to outdo ourselves and battle to get out of the group.
That said, everything had to go our way, as we were also dependent on a slip-up from Inter in their final game against PSV Eindhoven. Ultimately a draw for us against Barcelona was enough to take us through. That was, without doubt, the start of our great adventure.
On eliminating Dortmund and then Manchester City ...
The [4-0 aggregate] scoreline [against Dortmund] maybe flatters us, because they were still two major battles during the course of this European campaign. Then the atmosphere was incredible [for the first leg against City] – partly because it was the second game at our new stadium. There was such great anticipation among the players, fans and club as a whole. That allowed us to deliver the goods against Manchester City.
Beating them 1-0 at home and not conceding was the best possible result. That was what saw us through, because after the two legs the scores were level but the fact we'd kept a clean sheet at home meant we advanced to the next round.
On Ajax in the semi-final ...
In the first leg we didn't really get going in the first 20 minutes. We know that top-level football can be decided by fine margins and we paid for that with the goal we conceded.
The fact we lost only 1-0 meant we still had hope for the second leg. The first half of that was difficult to manage because although I don't think we started badly, we found ourselves 2-0 down [on aggregate] at half-time. I think something happened in the dressing room at half-time and Lucas's brace in the space of a couple of minutes got us back to 2-2 and really let us believe in our chances of getting through. We had to manage the last 20 to 25 minutes to get through with the third goal we needed.
