Hugo Lloris: Tottenham fought all last season to get here – Champions League elimination now would be a failure

Hugo Lloris has warned Tottenham they have no excuses if they make a mess of their Champions League ­campaign.

Spurs will be knocked out of the competition tonight if they lose at Monaco and Bayer Leverkusen get at least a point at CSKA Moscow.

At the start of the season, Tottenham fancied their chances of progress but have made their life complicated by losing to both Monaco and Leverkusen at Wembley.

It leaves Spurs needing a win here to revive their chances of reaching the knockout stages.

Goalkeeper Lloris warned: “I want to be honest: If we do not go through, it will be a failure. We fought all last season to get here.

“The club are not used to playing this competition very often but we have plenty of talented players in the squad, who are young but have great ­potential.

“We all play for our national teams so we don’t have any excuses.

“We need to adapt quickly at this level but have not had the results we expected at Wembley. The important thing is that we are still alive so we can still believe in this qualification, but we need to push ourselves and tonight we will know a little bit more.

“We are definitely stronger mentally now than we were last season. Last season was a great experience. We didn’t reach what we expected last season but that is football. When we have the chance to face the best teams in Europe, the most important thing is to believe in ourselves, the manager’s philosophy and work hard every day.”

Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino will name his team with one eye on Saturday, when Spurs face League leaders Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Pochettino admitted last night he needed to assess the fitness of Harry Kane, Mousa Dembele and Dele Alli before deciding whether to include them in the starting XI against Monaco.

Kane has scored three times in two matches since returning from a seven-week absence due to an ankle injury, but Spurs are desperate to avoid any risk of recurrence.

Dembele is still troubled by a foot problem, while Alli missed the derby at Arsenal on November 6 with a twisted knee but returned as a substitute in the 3-2 win over West Ham.

While Spurs’s results away from home in Europe have been reasonable — a 1-0 win over CSKA Moscow and a 0-0 draw with Leverkusen — the results at Wembley have done severe damage, losing 2-1 to Monaco and 1-0 to Leverkusen.

Lloris told BT Sport: “We need to win our last two games to be sure of going through.

“First we need to beat Monaco, and then we can find some other solution to prepare better for the game at Wembley [against CSKA on December 7]. The first Monaco game affected our confidence at Wembley, and then we didn’t find a solution against Leverkusen. That was poor from us, not the performance we expected. It doesn’t happen a lot but it can happen.

“Now we know our responsibilities and what we need to do. We need to win to stay alive in the competition. Monaco are strong opponents but we have the quality to do it.”

Danny Rose, meanwhile, is furious with himself for getting booked for a challenge on Michail Antonio against West Ham, his fifth yellow card of the season and one that will see him suspended for Saturday’s clash at Chelsea.

He said: “I’m kicking myself because it was so unnecessary. The Chelsea fixture was the first I looked out for in the summer.”

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