Igor Tudor admitted that hauling off Antonin Kinsky was "not easy" and starting him was clearly "the wrong decision" after he hooked his goalkeeper after just 17 minutes.

The Czech had endured a horror start to the game after coming in to replace Guglielmo Vicario, whose performances have also come under fire. But Kinsky's night went from bad to worse after a poor pass allowed Atletico Madrid to open the scoring inside five minutes.

A slip from Micky van de Ven allowed Antoine Griezmann a one-on-one, which he converted, but Kinsky was then responsible for Atletico's third. He attempted to play a pass first time, but got his timing and feet muddled, playing it into the path of Julian Alvarez.

The Argentine passed the ball into an empty net as Tottenham continued to fall apart and Tudor had seen enough, reversing his pre-match decision by bringing on Vicario. Kinsky walked straight down the tunnel with several of his team-mates going after him to console him.

The Tottenham boss told TNT Sports: "After you see what happened it's the wrong decision, but for me it was the right one to take before because the team changing is good for competition."

• Antonin Kinsky 'finished' as Ally McCoist points blame for Tottenham keeper humiliation

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The Croatian admitted that hauling off his player that "it is not easy". Tudor failed to acknowledge Kinsky when he walked off and added: "It is not the moment to speak to much, it was a strange game, we gave them three goals."

On the situation facing him Tudor claimed: "I need to keep working, not speaking too much and staying focused on things we can do. This is the first time I've seen a lot of things in my career."

Tottenham would concede two more after changing their goalkeeper. Vicario had to pick the ball out of his net inside a matter of minutes as Robin Le Normand made it 4-0 by 22 minutes. Alvarez scored a second as the La Liga side finished 5-2 winners in the first-leg.

Tottenham signed Kinsky from Slavia Prague in a deal worth around £12.5million in January 2025. He had last started in October during a Carabao Cup clash.

Former Tottenham goalkeeper Paul Robinson said on BBC: "I have never seen that on a football pitch. What a huge call from the manager. Yes, the goalkeeper was at fault but that is confidence destroying for Antonín Kinsky."

Tottenham had won five of their eight Champions League outings prior to Tuesday night, losing just once. It had proved to be a much needed distraction from their domestic struggles. The north Londoners will need to overturn a three-goal deficit when they host Atletico next week.

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