15/08/2025

FRIDAY | AUG 15, 2025

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Paris Saint-Germain’s Marquinhos (centre) lifts the Super Cup trophy. – AFPPIC

Frank proud of Tottenham players as ‘special operation’ fails against PSG Heartbreak for Spurs for Spurs Paris Saint-Germain’s Nuno Mendes (right) and Lucas Chevalier celebrate winning the Super Cup. – AFPPIC

T HOMAS FRANK acknowl edged his “special operation” failed but felt pride in his play ers after Tottenham surren dered a two-goal lead to lose the Super Cup on penalties to Paris St Germain. Set-piece goals by Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero had Spurs halfway towards another trophy – only three months on from Frank’s predecessor Ange Postecoglou clinching Europa League success in May. Champions League

playing against one of the best teams in the world, maybe the best at the moment and I think we were 75, 80 minutes perfect. Almost giving nothing away. “I knew we had to do something a little bit different against PSG. It was a special operation. In medical terms, the operation succeeded but the patient died, so not that good in the end. “But we worked on a gameplan that was a little bit different and very close to succeeding. “It was a little bit of special operation because it clearly went in spells a little bit more direct, because we knew that we could hurt them there.

New Tottenham boss Frank promised to swiftly lift morale before tomorrow’s (10pm Malaysian time) Premier League opener at home to Burnley, adding: “Every game matters. “I think if you look on the face of the players and all of us, we are hugely disappointed and I have my rule for 24 hours. I can be disappointed for 24 hours. “We want to compete in a lot

winners PSG, who only returned to pre-season last week following their Club World Cup exploits in July, fought back impressively – with substitute Lee Kang-in pulling one back with five minutes left before Goncalo Ramos grabbed an equaliser in the fourth minute of stoppage-time. It was initially advantage Tottenham in the shoot-out when Vitinha missed PSG’s first kick and Rodrigo Bentancur put the Premier League club two up, but it was followed by Van de Ven and Mathys Tel

of different tournaments and if you want to do that, you need to be ready to do a quick turnaround and go again. I’ll make sure the players are ready and come flying out on Saturday.” Luis Enrique was honest in his assessment of PSG, who competed in the Club World Cup final exactly a month ago. “To be honest, I’m not sure we deserved this trophy,” the Spanish coach admitted.

“Big, big focus on the set pieces, from all areas of the pitch, but we will have focus on set pieces no matter what.” Frank’s game plan had worked perfectly until the 85th minute – with Van de Ven’s opener just reward for a disciplined and dynamic Tottenham first-half display. R o m e r o ’ s

Champs flex muscles

“The difference was stark between Tottenham. They’ve had six weeks of preparation and we’ve had six days. “It was huge and we were trying to play our football and just couldn’t for the first 80 minutes. We had a lot of poor passes and maybe we were lucky. Lady Luck was smiling on us.” New keeper Lucas Chevalier impressed on his debut as new first-choice goalkeeper yesterday, drawing praise from Enrique. “We relied on Lucas… he just arrived, but it was time for him to show off. We’re very happy because he made it,” Enrique said. “This is PSG, you have to know how to handle the pressure, Lucas is a top class goalkeeper, he’s capable of it. He did his job, welcome to him with a trophy.” – The Independent/Reuters

failing to score as Frank’s competitive debut ended in a 4-3 shootout defeat after a 2-2 draw. The Danish coach paid tribute to his squad after he lined them up in a back three formation to largely good effect, in a fixture where they constantly looked a threat at set-pieces. “Very, very proud of the players, the

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header from Pedro Porro’s free kick three minutes after the break had Spurs fans in dreamland, w h i c h remained the case as they put bodies on the line to thwart PSG until

Reds lead charge

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team, the club, the fans,” Frank reflected. “I think the players gave everything,

a raft of substitutes by Luis Enrique helped tip the scales.

Thomas Frank. – REUTERSPIC

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