Spurs head coach Tim Sherwood felt that last night’s game against Dnipro was turned on its head by Christian Eriksen’s free kick goal that sparked a surge of three strikes in 13 minutes which eventually took us into the last sixteen.
Despite going a goal down, Sherwood claimed he could sense victory as soon as Eriksen’s effort hit the back of the net.
“The fans were brilliant. You just feel it. I sensed it, as soon as we scored the equaliser I just thought ‘this is it’, another one of those nights at the Lane,” Tim said on the club’s official website.
“We took a real blow by conceding so early in the second half but we had the belief.
“We needed to show spirit and character and we certainly did that in the second half, especially after going behind.
“It was important to bounce back and I’m proud of the lads, the way they responded and kept this great club in the competition.”
We’re through but a tough tie with Benfica awaits. The first leg takes place at White Hart Lane on Thursday March 13th but if you fancy some entertainment in the meantime, take a look at last night’s Facebook comments after the Dnipro goal went in.
ok, we had a good win , but still not strong in midfield no creative player, and in the middle of back four
maybe he has learned something —play Eriksen – don’t l;eave him on the bench!
I would prefer to see a little realism rather than all the triumphalism …… we gave away a goal by poor positioning from the free kick, with defenders playing the goalscorer onside (a lot of this recently). We panicked every time they attacked, even with ten men, and were generally very porous against a pretty average team. When we began trying to run down the clock, Benteleb came on. and proceeded to reprise his performance against Norwich by starting three Dnipro attacks. Benteleb needs a rest, at least and a chance to think things through, and Sherwood needs to work on attacking, midfield and defensive drills – in each area we frequently played like strangers.
As someone who was there, I can tell you he’s right. It might have taken longer against 11, but soon after we scored you just knew we were going to do it. The crowd were absolutely buzzing.
Agree with me. I was at the Lane and we suddenly switched on after going 1 goal down. Slick play saw soldado through for a disallowed goal and the Eriksen goal was expected. From there we really had the momentum and had a good chance of winning with or without a red card. As a team dnipro were stopping play at any chance and it didn’t make a good footballing spectacle. They were committing lots of cynical fouls and the ref failed to punish them so I was happy how spurs got back into it. Dnipro were very organised defensively which is a historic problem for spurs as well as being incredibly weak from set pieces. I will never understand how we concede so easily from free kicks dropped into the box.
For me, the biggest turning point wasn’t actually the card or the equaliser.
After they scored I was quite disappointed as most of the park lane end went quite quiet. I think it was because of shock, and because it definitely felt against the run of play.
For me the point where the game changes was, as you said, the Soldado disallowed goal and the slick build up play to it. Despite the fact it didn’t stand, it was that play and that passage that got the fans cheering again after being a little subdued for a moment… from then with the fans singing load, spurs turned up the tempo, were pushing forward and attacking well which led to Eriksen’s free kick and goal.
I think by the time we had that equaliser before the red card, we had already shifted the momentum to our side and were building on it.
It was far from error free, and I really think Eriksen needs to be played more centrally… He had a brilliant game, but with him drifting into the middle all of the time it meant that we lacked a lot of width on the left as Zeki Fryers was being cautious and not push forward too often.
Last night, I would have brought off Dembele, shifted Eriksen more centrally, and played with either Lennon on the right and Townsend on the left, or with Lennon and Chadli. Just to keep the pitch wide, and utilise the space a little more. But that is just my thoughts…
Play Eriksen in the middle, give him the space to create. Thought Dembele was poor yesterday, would have prefered to see Lennon and Townsend stretching Dnipro, with Sandro holding
It was a wake up call and one decent second half performance!!! Play eriksen centrally!!! Soldado did better, lets play better yo the end of the season. Then tim cocky n fim will be gone!!
Why do i feel like punching someone’s face in every time I watch spurs
My team against cardiff
Lloris
Walker……..not Dawson…….vert……….fryers
………….sandro……………dembele……….
Townsend…………paulinho……………eriksen
……………………..adebayor………………..
Tim Sherwood if by any chance your reading this , we need runners in to the box that means Townsend, paulinho, dembele then eriksen can play the balls through look what holtby is doing at Fulham all he needs is runners ffs .