'Disappointed' Tottenham midfielder Dele Alli defended after first red card

Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino is not planning face-to-face talks with midfielder Dele Alli despite the England international earning his first career red card following a horror tackle as Spurs crashed out of Europe.

The 20-year-old was shown a straight red card for a late lunge on Brecht Dejaegere in the first half of the 2-2 draw with Gent at Wembley which ended the club's Europa League campaign.

The episode was the first time Alli has seen red in his senior career and comes a year after Pochettino warned the youngster over his behaviour after an outburst against Fiorentina in the same competition. On that occasion the ex-Milton Keynes Dons youngster kicked Nenad Tomovic - and another outburst saw his evening curtailed in the first 45 minutes.

But Pochettino was happy to accept Alli's dismissal as part of the game and will not seek to reprimand or change the Tottenham player, who has scored 13 goals this season. When asked what he had said to Alli after the game, Pochettino told reporters: "Nothing. He is very disappointed.

"He is sad. In football it happens, that situation. He knows he made a mistake because he was sent off but in football it happens and now he is trying to move on and improve. This is the situation but we must work.

"Three seconds before he was fouled, if we watch, it was a clear foul. It is not to blame the referee but his action comes in very, very soon. It's a bad tackle and he deserves the sending off and the red card. He knows. This could always happen.

"It is only one red card while playing for Tottenham. All that he achieved in a very short period is because he is special, he is a special player. He is a special boy, he has unbelievable personality and character and for that he is a great player. He is how he is and because he is very passionate to play football I think it is only natural. It happens with different players. Now it is time to support him because he is very sad."

Christian Eriksen's early goal had seemingly put Tottenham on course to end a dry patch which has seen them failed to win a competitive game inside 90 minutes at Wembley since 1999. But an own goal from Harry Kane put Gent back into the ascendancy, but despite being at a numerical disadvantage, Victor Wanyama gave the hosts hope with a superb strike.

But Tottenham couldn't grab the crucial third goal and they were punished on the break as Jeremy Perbet toe-poked home to send Hein Vanhaezebrouck's side into the last 16 after a 3-2 aggregate victory. But ahead of the visit of Stoke City on Sunday [26 February] Pochettino is unconcerned by the physical after-affects of the game despite his side playing for nearly an hour with 10 men.

"Today was a good test for us," he added. "Ten vs 11 we play nearly one hour with 10 men and you can see the energy was fantastic. How we run, how we press, how we play, how we create chances. That showed two things, that football is here [in the head] its the energy in your mind and it is work hard on the training ground every day. It was a very good game for us to learn for the future and follow that determination because it was a good game to take that feeling for the future."