Pochettino: My happiest moment as a coach was with Espanyol, not Tottenham

Mauricio Pochettino saw his Tottenham Hotspur side advance to the Champions League semi-finals for the first time in their history on Wednesday night, yet he affirmed that his greatest moment in coaching came whilst he was in charge of Espanyol.

Spurs lost 4-3 to Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium, yet the score was 4-4 on aggregate and the Londoners advanced on away goals. Nevertheless, that did not bring the same happiness to the Argentine as he had after preventing Espanyol from going down to the Segunda Division in 2009.

"My greatest joy as a coach was in Almeria when we were saved [from relegation] because of what it meant to the whole Espanyol family," Pochettino said to El Partidazo de COPE and Radio MARCA.

In stoppage time, Raheem Sterling - and almost everyone at the Etihad - thought that he sealed his hat-trick, but VAR intervened and ruled that Sergio Aguero was offside in the build-up to the goal.

"When he scored, I looked like The Incredible Hulk," stated Pochettino.

"I took off my jacket, I threw my sweater down [onto the ground] ... I sat down and then that's when they said that the VAR had disallowed it for offside.

"At that moment, I revived. The injection of energy was incredible."