Tottenham boss Andre Villas-Boas defended Gareth Bale after he was booked for diving in their Europa League win over Inter Milan. Villas-Boas defended his star player and said that, following the win, he may have even considered asking the Wales international to collect a booking on purpose to clear his suspension out of the way.
"It is a difficult decision for the ref," he said.
"I won't build on that case. I don't want to go into that, we have a wonderful player to enjoy and it is ridiculous if we go on like that.
"He is obviously a great miss but to be fair, probably with this result we would have asked him to get the yellow card to be clean and ready for the last eight.
"We are in a good position but it is not finished so we will miss Gareth because he has been influential in consecutive games but hopefully we can make it without him.
"He is a tremendous player so obviously he is going to be missed but an opportunity might arise for another player."
