Mourinho blasts Spurs players after shock Europa defeat to managerless Dinamo

JOSE Mourinho laid into his Tottenham Hotspur players and condemned their lack of application after they crashed out of the UEFA Europa League on Thursday night.

The Premier League club were stunned 3-0 on the night by Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb, whose manager Zoran Mamic resigned two days prior after being sentenced to five years in prison for fraud.

The win in Zagreb cancelled out Tottenham’s 2-0 first-leg win and gave Dinamo a shock 3-2 aggregate victory and a ticket to the quarter-finals.

Mourinho seethed with rage during his post-match interview, bashing his players while praising their opponents.

“Dinamo’s attitude I believe is humble,” the Portuguese said. “It is desire, motivation, it’s pride to prove themselves that they have talent to prove to the world football market that they have quality so they played with a lot of desire.

“I can call it also professionalism. For me professionalism starts in the attitude. You must have attitude every day and every minute of every game. Then more talent or less talent makes a difference but what is never negotiable is attitude and they beat us on attitude.

“They left sweat, energy, blood. In the end they left even tears of happiness. Very humble and committed. I have to praise them.

“On the other side, my team. I repeat, my team, they didn’t look like it was playing an important match. If for any one of them it is not important, for me it is.

“For the respect I have for my career and my job, every match is important. For every Tottenham fan at home every match matters. Another attitude is needed. To say I feel sad is not enough. What I feel is much more than sadness.”

Mourinho then begged for forgiveness from long-suffering Spurs fans who would have been saddened by the horror show.

“I can only apologise to the Tottenham supporters,” he added.

“I hope they feel the same way I feel. Today is live or die and in this moment we die. In some other matches I have the same feeling. Until the last day of the season we have to try and do our best.”

The former Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Manchester United manager then claimed that he had done his part in preparing the players for the match, especially on how to stop Mislav Orsic who scored all Dinamo’s three goals.

“I gave them all the information about Orsic,” he explained. “That’s all I can say. Congratulations to him because it’s a great night for him.

“We work very hard. We try to provide the best conditions for the players to perform, of course it concerns me.

“My position as head coach stops me or makes me uncomfortable to come in front of the cameras and go deep on analysis. I hope you understand.”

Spurs, who were finishing regularly in the top four positions in the Premier League under Mourinho’s predecessor Mauricio Pochettino, are in danger of missing out this season, as they are currently eighth, six points off fourth-placed Chelsea.