Borussia Dortmund continued with their woeful performances on the weekend when they suffered a defeat away to relegation strugglers Augsburg and lost their advantage over Bayern Munich at the top of the table in Germany.
Borussia Dortmund and Tottneham will meet on Tuesday for the second leg of their 1/8 final of the Champions League. The English side hold a healthy 3:0 lead coming to Dortmund and if they manage to score an away goal, then the hosts will have to put five past Tottenham’s goalkeeper.
However, Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino is unhappy Borussia Dortmund have had more time to prepare for Tuesday’s Champions League last-16 second leg.
Spurs lead 3-0 from February’s first leg at Wembley but Pochettino believes the Bundesliga have been given an unfair advantage.
Dortmund played 24 hours before Tottenham for the first leg and then played on Friday night – compared to Spurs’ lunchtime kick-off against Arsenal – ahead of the second leg in Germany.
“I think we need help from the FA, we need help from the Premier League, I don’t know because I am not involved in the decisions,” the Argentine said.
“I don’t know whether to blame the FA or to blame the Premier League or to blame Tottenham because we changed the day because we still not deliver our new stadium or the TV because they wanted us to play live on Saturday.
“Look what happened with Rennes in the Europa League. They cancelled their game at the weekend to help or provide Rennes to play against Arsenal.
“In Europe, the FAs are more sensitive to help the club to compete in the best way in Europe.
“I would like to play in the same situation as your opponent. That is the most important, you have the same day to prepare for the game.
“I think that is not fair and it is a problem that in the future we need to change if we want to help the English clubs be stronger in the competition.
“We need to be more sensitive to the clubs who play in Europe to provide better condition to have the same possibility to arrive to the games.”
Pochettino will not allow that red letter day at Wembley three weeks ago, where his side blew Dortmund away in the second half, to come into his thinking ahead of the return leg.
He is demanding that his side go on the front foot against Lucien Favre’s side.
“We need to play like always we play, trying to win, that is important,” he said.
“We need to forget the first leg, it’s important to be aggressive, fight from beginning, high tempo, that is going to be the key.