Mauricio Pochettino apologised to Manchester United for some overzealous Tottenham challenges during their Shanghai encounter.
United and Spurs continued their pre-season preparations in China as the Hongkou Stadium bore witness to a friendly that at times was anything but.
Dele Alli and Moussa Sissoko were guilty of particularly poor challenges in the first half, as was United midfielder Andreas Pereira.
Nobody was hurt in those tackles but Pochettino felt the need to apologise to his United counterparts.
“I was a little annoyed about some situations, I was not happy,” the Tottenham head coach told PA SPORT.
“It was a friendly game and in some situations when you are tired, when it’s so hot you are not right with the tempo to arrive at the actions, sometimes you arrive late, and something can happen. I apologise on behalf of our players to Manchester United.
“It’s football. It wasn’t their intention, but sometimes when you are tired you arrive late and something can happen, and I was worried because, in this period of preparation, sometimes you need to be aggressive and you need to play with passion, but sometimes the focus is to build your fitness and develop the way you want to play.
“When something happens in the pre-season it’s always tough, and I was a little worried but in the second half the game was a bit more relaxed.”
