Igor Tudor breaks his silence on substituting Antonin Kinsky after 17 minutes

Igor Tudor has admitted it was the wrong decision to start Antonin Kinsky following his error-laden performance against Atletico Madrid.

Kinsky endured a nightmare Champions League debut as Tottenham suffered a crushing 5-2 defeat to Atletico in the first-leg of their last-16 tie on Tuesday.

Atletico raced into a three-goal lead inside 15 minutes, with the 22-year-old keeper at fault for two of their three goals.

In the 17th minute, Tudor made the ruthless call to replace Kinsky.

Speaking after the game, the Spurs interim manager was asked if it was the wrong decision to play Kinsky from the start.

"After you see what happened, is for sure the wrong decision, but it was for me the right decision to do, thinking before [the match] because the team [was] changing competition, it was the right moment to do [it]," he told TNT Sports.

"Unfortunately what happened, what happened, so I changed the goalkeeper after 15 minutes. It's not easy."

Tudor added: "We don't need to comment, it's not the moment to speak too much. Strange game. It happened. We gave them three goals. We didn't start well, and the problems killed us. Very strange, very unusual.

"Everything looks like it is going wrong; it's unbelievable. It looks like everything is going against us.

"I need to help. I need to keep working. Not speaking too much, stay focused on what we can do. It's difficult to explain, the first time I have seen this 15 years in my career."

Igor Tudor didn't acknowledge Antonin Kinsky after he was hooked in the 17th minute. Image: Getty

'Igor Tudor as cold as can be'

TNT Sports pundit Steve McManaman delivered a scathing assessment of Tudor for not acknowledging Kinsky after he was hooked.

He said: "That poor goalkeeper has had a terrible night after being chosen by his own manager and his manager has not even acknowledged him, go over and say sorry, don't worry about it, put his arm around him, do something to affect the situation. That is cold as cold can be. Ruthless."

Joe Hart blames Igor Tudor

On TNT Sports’ commentary of the match, Joe Hart blamed Tudor for picking Kinsky in the first place.

"What's happening here? Kinsky is all over the place. Spurs three down in 15 minutes. They're getting Vicario ready down below us already. Tudor made the decision, he's going to change it. Kinsky seemingly can't handle it. Spurs can't handle it, and Atletico Madrid are three up. This is embarrassing," he said.

"If he's going to take him off after 16 minutes, you are finished at the club as a goalkeeper. You can't come back from this if you're Kinsky. He's made the decision to start him, you can't then drag him at this stage can you? He's about to!

"By the way, that's on the manager, as much as it's on Kinsky. I feel for him."