‘Very, very proud’: Thomas Frank hails Tottenham players after PSG defeat

Thomas Frank described himself as “very, very proud” of a Tottenham team that came within two minutes of a famous Uefa Super Cup win over Paris Saint-Germain. They were ultimately defeated on penalties after squandering a two-goal lead and their new manager was left to rue an inability to bend the outcome to their will in the shootout.

Goals from Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero appeared to have rocket-launched Frank’s tenure before Lee Kang-in and Gonçalo Ramos curtailed the celebrations. But the Dane saw plenty of encouragement in the way his players dominated their star-studded opponents for the first three quarters of the match.

“Very, very proud of the players, the team, the club, the fans,” he said. “I think the players gave everything against one of the best teams in the world, maybe the best. I think for 75 to 80 minutes we were perfect, almost ­giving nothing away.”

Tottenham were decisively undone when Van de Ven and Mathys Tel missed in the shootout but Frank was in no mood to apportion blame. “It’s down to the smallest of margins, like the flip of a coin,” he said. “I’d like to thank all the players who stepped up, were brave and took responsibility.”

Frank had set Spurs up with a back three and placed a heavy emphasis on set pieces, which they practised in the warm-up and deployed effectively for both goals. It recalled some of his best work with Brentford but he said the tactics had been honed specifically to trouble PSG. “It was a special operation,” he said. “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.”

There were signs of a greater flexibility than Spurs had tended to exhibit under Frank’s predecessor, Ange Postecoglou. “We showed that we can be adaptable and pragmatic, and we needed to be against a team like PSG,” he said. “The way we wanted to defend, high pressure and low defending, was top, almost perfect, and also the set pieces were very good and dangerous.”

A Premier League opener with Burnley awaits on Saturday and, in the meantime, Spurs are attempting to sign the Manchester City forward Savinho and the Crystal Palace ­talisman Eberechi Eze. “We’d like to strengthen the squad, no doubt about that,” Frank said. “We do work very hard to see if we can do that. In general I am very happy with the squad but in any transfer window we try to see if we can make the squad stronger before the window closes.”

The PSG manager Luis Enrique praised Lucas Chevalier, the debutant goalkeeper, who replaced the seemingly outbound Gianluigi ­Donnarumma. Chevalier should have done better for Romero’s goal but saved from Van de Ven in the shootout.

“He’s shown personality and we want him to integrate with the team immediately,” he said. “Everyone was talking about the situation, his wasn’t easy, but he showed great character.”