Tottenham Hotspur boss Roberto De Zerbi has revealed that he “kissed” Rodrigo Bentancur after his red card against Manchester United on Saturday, saying that his Spurs team needed this type of “reaction.”
Bentancur was given his marching orders in the 78th minute after a headbutt towards Luke Shaw in response to a challenge, with Spurs 1-0 down in the game at that point after Bryan Mbeumo‘s opener just five minutes earlier.
But down to 10-men, Spurs dug in and found a stoppage time equaliser through captain Dominic Solanke to take a point back to London.
And despite the potential cost of Bentancur’s decision, De Zerbi has defended his midfielder, praising his character.
“I liked the situation with Rodrigo’s red card, we need in this moment that situation, not to bring a red card, but we need to not accept the defeat, to not accept conceding goals,” De Zerbi told Sky Sports.
“We have to react in all ways we can. It is a bad way, not the right way, but I kiss Bentancur in the dressing room because we need this type of reaction with character.
“Football is character.”
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Spurs found themselves on top for large parts of the game and struggled to convert the chances they created with De Zerbi saying if his side can repeat what they produced at Old Trafford, they will “win many games.”
“I think we play very well against a great team, the first half we had total control, we had many chances to score, clear chances we didn’t score and in the second half its normal to suffer in this stadium against this quality of players, but I’m very happy because I’ve seen the right spirit, the right character,” he added.
“Today we showed we are a team for the first time this season, we suffer, we dominate the game. With every situation in the game we were in the game. Football is like this.
“If we become every game like today, we are going to win many games.”
