CHRISTIAN ERIKSEN HAS conceded that Tottenham have been “lucky” during their run to the Champions League final but believes that their progress this season has gone a long way to silencing their critics.
Spurs face Liverpool in Saturday’s showpiece in Madrid in what is the first all-English final since Manchester United beat Chelsea in Moscow back in 2008.
Mauricio Pochettino’s side were on the brink of being eliminated from the group stages of this season’s competition, with PSV’s final-game draw against Inter sending them through at the Italian side’s expense.
Since then, the north Londoners have progressed past Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City and Ajax, with there having been elements of good fortune to help them along the way.
Raheem Sterling’s last-gasp strike in the quarters had appeared to win the tie for City, only for VAR to rule the goal out, while it took a second-half Lucas Moura hat-trick to advance past Ajax.
And Eriksen isn’t sure that it’s destiny that Spurs have got this far, insisting that his side have got lucky in their run to the final.
He told reporters: “I don’t know if it’s destiny. I think at the moment we’ve just been lucky! First of all, with the City game, with Sterling, I thought we were out. Gone.
“Then Ajax was a bit different because it was during the game. There was no waiting or standing around. It was just Lucas pops up at the right time. It was nerve-wracking and it was dramatic. We’re just happy we were on the right side.
“It has [been up and down]. A lot has happened. In the group stage, after three games we were a bit far behind. Things changed and going into the other games in the knockout stages they were intense.
“[Sterling's disallowed goal was] mad. Mad. It was weird. I passed the ball away and they went through and ended up scoring. It would have been a disaster.
“For a few minutes, it was about trying to get back in the game because there was still in a few minutes to go. In the end, it was lucky they changed it and it fell our way because it would have been very, very painful.
Going into the City game, the second one, and the Ajax game, the second one, were something were exciting but luckily they fell on our side. We would have felt very down and we wouldn’t be standing here if they hadn’t gone our way. There were a lot of ups and downs, it was very exciting as a fan. But a bit unnerving.
Rival fans have been known to ridicule Tottenham for their apparent failure to deliver when it matters most and Eriksen thinks they have successfully silenced their critics with their impressive Champions League run this season.
When asked if it’s a chance for Spurs players to become legends, he said: “Of course.
“Now it depends if they keep winning, year after year. It changes. Spurs as a club, if you look from a historical point of view from Tottenham at how many trophies they’ve won before, where they’ve been before, it’s new.
It’s something that will change the club, how people look at the club, how people think about us players at Spurs. We’re not going to be Spursy, or whatever they call it. As a player you just go for the moment and hope it falls your way.
Subscribe to our new podcast, The42 Rugby Weekly, here:
