Tottenham Hotspur vs Borussia Dortmund: Europa League slips down list of priorities for title-chasing Spurs

Tottenham lost the first-leg of this Europa League tie 3-0

Mauricio Pochettino (GETTY IMAGES)

Tottenham Hotspur have a Europa League knockout game on Thursday night against Borussia Dortmund, but it is a sign of their remarkable campaign that it is by no means the biggest match of their season so far. Spurs are five points off the top of the Premier League and with just eight games left, all their resources must be deployed in trying to win their first league title since 1961.

The fact that Spurs lost to Dortmund 3-0 at the Westfalenstadion last Thursday, making qualification to the Europa League quarter-finals unlikely in the extreme, means there would be little sense in Tottenham throwing everything they have at Thursday's match when less glamorous opponents in Bournemouth feature in the more important game three days later.

Pochettino said pride rather than progress was Spurs’ priority at White Hart Lane. “Our mentality needs to be right,” he said. “We need to show that last Thursday was an accident. For me sometimes it is difficult, but I accept the criticism. For me it is important to keep everyone motivated. They are all important for me and I believe in all of them. Sometimes we rotate and sometimes maybe I have made mistakes.”

Tom Carroll and Ryan Mason struggled in midfield last Thursday, but Pochettino did not sound like a man who was about to bring all the big guns back. Defeat last Thursday was painful but vindicated by Spurs’ 2-0 win at Aston Villa three days later.

Sunday’s game will be Spurs’ last before the two-week international break, and Pochettino knows that his players’ exploits may take them into Roy Hodgson’s squad for the friendlies with Germany and the Netherlands.

“Maybe we have a big group called up – six, seven or eight,” Pochettino said. But he insisted he was relaxed about England’s use of his players. “We have trust in the national team. We have contact with all the staff from national teams and always we need information, but we’ll never say ‘you need to do this or that’.”