Tottenham coach Thomas Frank described his team’s loss to Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Super Cup penalty shootout as a “successful operation… but the patient died”.The Spurs led 2-0 thanks to goals from central defenders Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero, before PSG pulled one back five minutes from the end through substitute Lee Kang-in.Another substitute, Gonçalo Ramos, equalized in the fourth minute of added time to force a penalty shootout in which both Van de Ven and Mathys Tel missed, allowing Nuno Mendes to convert the winning penalty, with PSG prevailing 4-3.Tottenham, which deployed a new 5-3-2 system, was on the verge of becoming the seventh English club to win the Super Cup, but PSG reacted in the last 20 minutes.
In medical terms, the operation was a success but the patient died. So it wasn’t so good in the end. But we worked on a slightly different game plan and were very close to succeeding.
Thomas Frank
The Spurs begin their Premier League campaign on Saturday with a home match against newly promoted Burnley, while Champions League winners PSG, who can now celebrate their fifth trophy of 2025, start their Ligue 1 season in Nantes a day later.I think if you play 2-2 against PSG, I think you accept that. That single result is good. Then, if we separate and have a penalty shootout, we lost, so maybe we need to work on penalties. Maybe that’s what it takes to win a final. I think if everyone had said this would be a draw and we would lose on penalties, everyone would think ‘oh, that’s pretty impressive’. And then, if you look at the performance and the effort they actually put in, wow. What a mentality throughout the match. So there are many things to be happy about.
Thomas Frank
