Mousa Dembele admits Tottenham underestimated Gent in Europa League defeat

Mousa Dembele has admitted he and his Tottenham Hotspur team-mates underestimated Gent and hopes their surprise defeat in Belgium will act as a wake-up call.

Mauricio Pochettino fielded a strong side for the first leg of Tottenham’s last-32 Europa League clash by only making two changes from the Premier League defeat at Liverpool.

But a goal from Jeremy Perbet gave Gent a valuable lead to take to Wembley next week and Dembele has called for the Spurs players to redouble their efforts.

“Generally I think they wanted it more than us, they were sharper, more motivated than us,” said Dembele.

“I hope this game has opened our eyes. I hope we double our attitude next week. And that we really want it.” Asked by Belgian reporters whether Tottenham underestimated Gent, who are eighth in their domestic league, Dembele replied: “I think so. I think this loss was deserved.”

Dembele’s name was sung by the Gent fans when he was replaced by Heung-Min Son and the Belgian added: “That was nice. It’s always nice to play in your own country and to get the respect of the fans. It was the second time already, after Anderlecht last year. That’s good.”

Spurs have now suffered two successive defeats ahead of Sunday’s FA Cup clash against Fulham and have scored only one goal in their last four games in all competitions. With the FA Cup and Europa League still available to win, and a top-four finish in Tottenham’s sights, defender Toby Alderweireld stressed that nobody should be panicking just yet.

“Spurs are not in their best period,” said Alderweireld. “But we should also not make more of it than it is. We now need the stabbing heads together and try to fill up confidence in the FA Cup. Then we need to straighten this normal loss in a packed Wembley.”