Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp was content despite his side blowing a 2-0 lead in their Champions League bow.
Spurs drew 2-2 away to Werder Bremen in their first ever game in the competition’s group stages on Tuesday as Hugo Almeida and Marko Marin scored to cancel out a Petri Pasanen own goal and Peter Crouch header, both of which had come in the first 20 minutes.
But, despite his side missing out on all three points, Redknapp says they can be happy with the away result given the amount of players they were missing because of injury. He now hopes they play like they did in the first 40 minutes in their upcoming home games in the European competition.
“It’s great for the fans, hopefully we can win our home games and get through to the knockout stages,” he told Sky Sports.
“I think that first 42 minutes was as good as you will see us play. We looked like a fantastic team, opened them up time and time again.
“We conceded a bad goal for no reason, we gave the ball away and it brought them back into the game.
“We had great chances at the end as well. Overall it was an excellent performance.
“They’re a good side but I was always hopeful. We had four important players missing - we had the ‘keeper (Heurelho Gomes), Michael Dawson, Luka Modric, and Jermain Defoe."
Redknapp also declared that Robbie Keane came on as a substitute for Rafael van der Vaart as the Dutchman had a calf injury that the club will now monitor, the manager adding: “His calf was tight, he felt he might be alright but we could see he was limping and he had to come off. We’ll see how he is.”