Tottenham midfielder Dele Alli has admitted that he and his teammates are still 'kicking themselves' following a dismal Champions League campaign.
Spurs qualified for European club football's elite competition having finished third in the Premier League last season, however, they were unable to get out of a group containing Monaco, Bayer Leverkusen and CSKA Moscow and had to settle for a place in the knockout phase of the Europa league instead.
Having now been eliminated from that competition by Belgian side Gent, Spurs can at least enjoy thecomfort of knowing that they can now focus on finishing in the top four once again this year, so as to guarantee a place in next season's Champions League.
And Alli has stated that he is confident Spurs can secure a spot in the competition once again and also admitted that the team are still frustrated by this season's disappointing campaign.
Dele Alli's Premier League season by numbers so far:
25 games
32 chances created
27 shots on target
12 goals
2 assists
Already a star. https://t.co/VwpZyZbncr
Obviously, everyone wants to be there [Champions League],� he told theMirror.
There's tough competition in the Premier League but we fancy ourselves against anyone. So it'll be disappointing if we don't get back in there.
We're kicking ourselves that we didn't do better. We are confident in our ability as a team and we probably expected to go a bit further.
As a kid, everyone wants to play in the Champions League so it was an honour to be in it. We have the team to achieve a lot of great things. We want to be up there with the best teams in the world. But to do that we have to be in the Champions League, playing against them."
With Mauricio Pochettino's side some 10 points behind Premier Leagueleaders Chelsea, it seems they will be unable to catch the Blues and will now have to fight it out for second with a number of other clubs.
Whilst Spurs have been someway behind Chelsea for much of the season, Alliwent on to suggest that when on-song, Tottenham are virtually unbeatable and that they should be capable ofwinning trophies in the near future.
He added:It's important that we are ambitious. We know where we should be and we know what we can do as a team.
When we are on form and playing well, I don't think there is anyone in the Premier League that can beat us.There are no boundaries. There's nothing we can't do if we play as well as we know we can.
We've got to learn from every game. Hopefully in the future, maybe even this season, we'll start winning trophies.�