On this day: Tony Adams bemoans kamikaze defending as Portsmouth have European dreams dashed at Wolfsburg

On this day in 2008, Tony Adams bemoaned Pompey’s kamikaze defending as the European dream shattered.
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The Blues found themselves out of the Uefa Cup with a group game to spare after tumbling to a 3-2 defeat in Wolfsburg.

Adams’ men only had themselves to blame after gifting a side unbeaten at home in 11 previous matches all three of their goals.

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David James’ generous pass straight to Zvjezdan Misimovic provided the German side with the winner 16 minutes from the end.

Pompey's David James and Sylvain Distin stand dejected after Wolfsburg's Zvjezdan Misimovic scored.Pompey's David James and Sylvain Distin stand dejected after Wolfsburg's Zvjezdan Misimovic scored.
Pompey's David James and Sylvain Distin stand dejected after Wolfsburg's Zvjezdan Misimovic scored.

But the defence were also badly at fault for the first two goals with poor marking.

It meant the Blues had conceded nine goals in their past four matches.

And Adams admitted they deserved everything that came their way.

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He said: ‘We made too many mistakes to win the game. I’m disappointed, we could have done better and suffered as a result.

‘We just didn’t stop enough crosses. The full-backs have got to get out there and stop crosses and then when they did come into our box I expect some defenders and midfield players to deal with it as well.

‘We could have done better in both ways. The first half was not so good.

‘In the first half our midfield didn’t deal with Christian Gentner and he’s getting into the box.

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‘Their striker, Edin Dzeko, was also a handful, a very good player, and I didn’t think we dealt with him.

‘Obviously I was in constant contact with Braga’s result and when they went 21 up I did try to change things to have a go and in the last 20 minutes we were a bit gungho.

‘We’ve now got to get back on the training pitch and work on our defending because it has not been good.’

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