Palhinha reveals surprise at Tottenham team-mate – and praises defensive commitment after another clean sheet | OneFootball

Joao Palhinha admits he was surprised when he found out Tottenham team-mate Lucas Bergvall was still a teenager.

Palhinha joined Spurs on loan from Bayern Munich this summer and has so far helped Spurs to win four of the first five games of the new campaign.

Their latest victory came in a narrow 1-0 win against Villarreal in the Champions League, in which Bergvall played a decisive role when his cross was spilled into his own net by goalkeeper Luiz Junior.

“Top player as well,” Palhinha said when asked about the young Swede.

“He’s one of the young talents that we have. He’s improving a lot, growing up a lot.

“I found out just two or three days ago that he was 19-years-old, because I thought he was a bit older.

“But it means a lot, it’s young players that we will have not just in the present, but also for the future for the club. I’m really happy to play with him and all the other players that I have on the team.”

Spurs have conceded just once in the first five games, keeping four clean sheets, and Palhinha also hailed his side’s defensive commitment.

“I think we have been seeing the team improving, and that’s the main thing, especially defensively,” he said.

“I think we have been improving a lot. I think the commitment since the first player at the front until the keeper, the commitment is always there and we know that we will have our chances.

“So this is really important for us to keep the clean sheet, because you can have a lot of chances or not, but we will have it (the clean sheet) and that’s the main thing. If we keep the level high on the defence, we know that we are much closer to winning games.

“But as I said before, it’s a process.”