Redknapp happy to escape with 'great defeat'

Redknapp couldn't hide his disgust at his side's start to their first Champions League tie for almost half a century as they found themselves 3-0 down after just 28 minutes.

But goals from Sebastian Bassong and Roman Pavlyuchenko hauled Spurs back from the brink to give them hope ahead of next week's second leg at White Hart Lane.

Redknapp told Sky Sports: "That was a great defeat in the end, if there is such a thing as a great defeat. At 3-0 we were out of it. We were in desperate trouble, so full credit to the lads, we've come back. Now we need to win at home and it gives us a great chance.''

"I don't want to make excuses. but I had a nasty feeling there was something in the back of the minds about the pitch and they went out and played like that.''

Redknapp, who confirmed both Jermain Defoe and Luka Modric had picked up injuries, is already looking forward to next week's second leg in north London.

"It will be a great night, the atmosphere will be amazing. But it will be tough,' the Spurs boss said. '

Michael Dawson admitted Tottenham's performance in the first half had been well below par, but Spurs' captain for the evening refused to blame the artificial surface.

"The first half hour wasn't good enough, simple as that," Dawson said. "But we got in at half-time, sorted things out and stuck together. We've got to be happy with that after the first-half performance.

"We were slow out of the blocks and it was disappointing. We trained on it last night, the pitch wasn't the problem. It's hard when you go a goal down early on and it took us longer than we liked to react.

"But 3-2, back to White Hart Lane, we're still in the competition, we're in with a good chance. We're still full of confidence we can make the group stages.''

Young Boys defender Scott Sutter admitted had been a dream come true for him to play against Spurs, the team he has supported since childhood.

"It was a dream for me personally to play against Tottenham and as a player it doesn't get better than this, walking out in front of a full house to play Tottenham," he said.

"I could never have imagined it like it was. We tried to look for the fourth goal. We had a couple of very good chances to extend our lead.

"It was important that we left the tie open for the last game, we did fantastically well today. I just hope we can play as concentrated.''

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