Jose Mourinho successfully complained to Uefa about the size of the goalposts before Tottenham’s Europa League play-off victory against Shkendija in North Macedonia.
Goals by Erik Lamela, Son Heung-min and Harry Kane earned Spurs a 3-1 victory, with boss Mourinho playing his own unique part before the match after keepers Joe Hart and Hugo Lloris pointed out the irregularity during the warm-up.
“Before the game was a funny situation because my goalkeepers told me that the goal was small,” explained Mourinho.
“I went by myself and of course the goal was small. The goalkeepers, they spend hours and hours and hours in the goal so they know when the goal is not the right dimension.
“I am not a goalkeeper but I know football since I was a kid and I know when I stand there and I spread my arms and I know the distance, so I felt immediately that something was going wrong.
“We got the Uefa delegate to confirm and yes it was 5cm smaller, which of course we demanded for the goals to be replaced for goals of the right dimension.”
There are no suggestions of foul play from Shkendija as the stadium in the North Macedonian capital Skopje is not their home ground.
Shkendija’s own stadium was not used as it does not meet Uefa requirements.