Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino refused to blame playing at Wembley for his side’s Champions League loss to Bayer Leverkusen.
The 1-0 defeat leaves Spurs facing a major task to qualify for the knockout stage of the tournament.
And it means they have lost both of this season’s Champions League matches at Wembley, which is hosting their European matches while White Hart Lane is being redeveloped.
But Pochettino, who described Wednesday’s defeat as “embarrassing”, insisted playing at the national stadium had nothing to do with the outcome.
Speaking at his post-match press conference, he said: “We were the problem, not Wembley. There is nowhere better in the world to play football.”
Pochettino added: “After two games at Wembley, (against) Monaco and Bayer Leverkusen, there is no excuse. We were poor and we need to find the answer ourselves.
“We are very disappointed and we cannot show the performance that we have in recent weeks. That is the problem.”
The result leaves Tottenham third in Group E behind Monaco and Bayer Leverkusen with two games – away to Monaco and at home to CSKA Moscow – remaining.
“We must win. If not we can forget the Champions League,” Pochettino said.
“We need to improve and we don’t have too much time to do that.”
