Late blow our fault for not killing game off: Eriksen

CHRISTIAN Eriksen has admitted Tottenham have only themselves to blame following their latest Champions League setback.

Spurs’ chances of qualifying from Group B lie in tatters after they conceded a late equaliser in a 2-2 draw at PSV Eindhoven.

The visitors were leading after goals from Lucas Moura and Harry Kane cancelled out Hirving Lozano’s opener for PSV.

But, with 11 minutes left, goalkeeper Hugo Lloris was sent off after racing out of his penalty area and upending Lozano.

And in the 87th minute, former Newcastle loanee Luuk de Jong stabbed home an equaliser to leave Spurs with just a point from their three matches.

Eriksen had an eventful match upon his return from injury, providing the cross from which Kane headed Spurs ahead but then misplacing the pass that sent Lozano through on goal.

“We should have finished the game off,” the Denmark midfielder said. “We didn’t and PSV had the chance to come back.

“I gave a bad pass, Hugo had a sending-off — I don’t think he was the last man — but, again, if we finish the game off we don’t have that at the end. We could have done better.”

Spurs will probably have to win all three of their remaining games, including a trip to Barcelona, and hope Inter Milan slip up against PSV to have any chance of catching the Italians.

Boss Mauricio Pochettino said: “Maybe we can qualify, but in the end it will be difficult when the opponent will be tougher than the one we played here.

“We need to win the three games and some results that help us to achieve qualification, but it will be so, so difficult.”

Lloris’ replacement Michel Vorm admitted that the outcome felt like a defeat for the visitors.

“We did not draw because PSV were that good,” he said. “We had to kill the game at 2-1. We had enough possibilities to score a third, but we didn’t.

“I think if we win 4-1, 5-1, it’s (deserved). And that makes it even harder because now it feels like we lost.”

You can focus on the specific details that cost Spurs the win — Davinson Sanchez’s disallowed goal, the missed chances at 2-1, Toby Alderweireld’s mistake for PSV’s opener or Lloris’ late red card. But put them all together and they add up to a bigger, familiar problem that is just as much technical as it is mental — a pervasive sloppiness and softness that undermines Tottenham’s game on these big European nights.

But that means this is harder to fix. How does the whole team sharpen up a collective dull edge?

“It’s a difficult one,” said Vorm when asked what the answer was.

“If there really was a solution, to say, ‘If we do this’, ‘If we do that’, (we would do it). We played very well. We just need to score more goals.

“I can’t say, ‘This is it’ or, ‘This is it’, it’s just a shame. We need to learn from it.

“We always say to each other, ‘We need to learn from this, we need to learn from that’. Then if it happens, I think it kills the team as well.”

The frustration that one step forward had led to one step back was obvious.

“One season is not the other,” he said. “One season doesn’t mean that the next season will be better or similar. And European football is totally different from the Premier League. And we’re still in a process of learning in these kind of games. It’s harsh though.” Frustrating end: Christian Eriksen in action against PSV