Tottenham Hotspur star Christian Eriksen has honestly admitted that they were ‘over-confident’ during their Champions League last-16 exit to Juventus.
Spurs crashed out of the competition despite a 2-2 away draw and a 1-0 lead in the second-leg tie, with two goals in three second-half minutes from Gonzalo Higuain and Paulo Dybala sending the Italian champions through.
The club’s only chance of a first piece of silverware in ten years lies with the FA Cup, and they face a quarter-final tie against Swansea on Saturday.
Speaking to the Independent, Eriksen has now made the massive admission that Spurs were over-confident in their approach to the second-half of that match, and highlighted what the club need to improve in those moments going forward.
“Juventus were waiting for it, I think. I think we were almost over-confident that it couldn’t go wrong. We were in a good position, almost a perfect position, to go through. We know they were more used to the bigger stages, they don’t need the ball as much,” he said.
When asked what Spurs need to change, he replied: “The clinical part. We know that in the knock-out stage of the Champions League, it can be just three minutes. They had two shots and scored two goals. That’s the three minutes we need to be even more aware of, so it doesn’t happen again, to give ourselves a better chance to go through.”
OPINION
While Spurs will still be feeling disappointed about the manner of their Champions League exit, there is only one thing that they can do now. They must learn from it. If they do not take lessons from the devastating loss, then their brilliant European campaign this season will have been useless. If they however come back next season and manage to see out a win against a big team, then the loss will have meant something. That is the key.