Peter Schmeichel has accused Igor Tudor of ‘killing’ Antonin Kinsky’s career after Tottenham’s 5-2 defeat to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.
Atletico were three ahead after just 15 minutes in the first leg of their last-16 tie in Madrid with Kinsky responsible for two of the goals.
Kinsky, who had not made an appearance for Spurs since October, was then substituted by Igor Tudor in the 17th minute with Guglielmo Vicario replacing him goal for the remainder of the match.
The 22-year-old, who joined Spurs in a £12.5 million deal from Slavia Prague 14 months ago, was also blanked by Tudor on the touchline before he headed straight down the tunnel.
‘I feel really, really sorry for him,’ Schmeichel told CBS Sports when asked about the decision to substitute Kinsky.
‘You make mistakes, you know, he’s put him in goal. Obviously, he’s costing the team the opportunity to win. Not that Tottenham have any opportunity to win. I mean, it was a terrible performance.
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‘But when this happened, when you look at the clock there, 14:55, what does Igor Tudor then? Well, he substitutes him.
‘That’s going to have ramifications for the rest of his career. This will be a moment that everybody in football will always remember every time they see and hear his name.
‘You make your choice as a coach and yes, it wasn’t going your way and you’re 3-0 down, there’s no way that this team would ever come back from that. You’ve got to stick with him and at least stick until half-time.
‘What he’s done there, for me, he’s absolutely killed his career. That’s going to take something to get over that.’
Meanwhile, Tudor insists Kinsky ‘understands’ the decision to substitute him so early in the game.
‘What happened is very rare. I’ve been coaching for 15 years, I’ve never done this. It was necessary to preserve the guy, preserve the team. Incredible situation, nothing to comment,’ Tudor said.
‘It was, before the game, the right choice to do in the moment like we are, with the pressure on Vicario, another competition. Toni is a very good goalkeeper. It was for me the right decision. After this, of course, it’s easy to say that it was not the right decision. So I explained to Toni also, speaking after: he’s the right guy and a good goalkeeper.
‘Unfortunately, it happened in this big game, these mistakes. He was sorry. The team is with him, me too. I was speaking with him. He understands the moment, he understands why he goes out. As I said, he’s a very good goalkeeper. We are with him, we are all together. It’s never about one player. It’s happened. It’s the Champions League again. We paid [for] this start of the game.
‘It was too much for us in this moment when we are fragile, when we are weak. I recognise what we are and which problems we have. I recognise that every game something happens. Sometimes it’s very difficult to explain. When these things happen, in the moment where we are now, unfortunately, it’s like that. Even these slippery things happen, it explains the moment [we are in].’
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