Eriksen admits Spurs deserved to be eliminated
CHRISTIAN ERIKSEN admitted Tottenham were not good enough to deserve anything other than Europa League elimination. The Dane opened the scoring in the first half but it all went wrong before the break as Harry Kane scored an own-goal and Dele Alli was shown a red card for a horrible lunge on Brecht Dejaegere six minutes before the interval.
Victor Wanyama’s superb second-half strike gave Spurs temporary hope but Jeremy Perbet killed it late on as he capitalised on a defensive mix-up from Eric Dier to score.
“We are very disappointed with what we achieved today – and in these two games against Gent,” Eriksen told BT Sport. “In the first half they didn’t have a shot on target but they still got a goal and this gave them confidence. We gave it away on a stupid mistake but they took their chance very well. We were not good enough.”
Spurs could complain that the corner that led to Kane putting the ball into his own net should have been a goal-kick, but Eriksen said they had to blame themselves. “Overall we did what we could and the ref was not on our side,” he said.
While the referee may have got that decision wrong, there could be no doubt that Dele Alli’s horror-tackle merited a sending-off, as he lunged high into Dejaegere’s standing leg leaving Spurs needing to score twice with 10 men.
“I haven’t seen if it was a red card but we showed good character with 10 men,” Eriksen continued. “We had our chances, but when they scored to make it 2-2 it was a big punch.
“We can’t blame the ref but he could have made it easier if it shouldn’t have been a corner. We could blame the ref but we had our chances and at the end of the day we were not good enough.”
Former Celtic midfielder Wanyama’s effort gave the majority of the 80,465 – a new Europa League record – in attendance hope of a comeback, but they have now won only once at the national stadium in their last eight matches.
Pochettino fielded his strongest available side, with only the injured Danny Rose and Erik Lamela absent, and the likes of Kane, Alli and Mousa Dembele all included.
The Argentine said on Wednesday he knows within 50 seconds which Tottenham are going to turn up and he would have been buoyed by his side’s start, typified by a thumping early challenge by Wanyama.
Ten minutes in, they were ahead, although not from any flowing move but rather a defensive mix-up from Gent, as three defenders failed to clear Kyle Walker’s long ball over the top and Eriksen nipped in to scoe.
Set-pieces, however, have often been this team’s undoing this season and so it proved again as Gent snatched an equaliser, Stefan Mitrovic heading the corner towards goal and a straining Kane flicking it into his own net.
It took until the 61st minute before Wanyama found the net, but there was to be a late sucker-punch as Kalifa Coulibaly raced clear on the break and, while Dier stopped his cross, it fell perfectly for Perbet to prod home.