Tottenham Hotspur’s Eric Dier makes AC Milan admission after win vs Nottingham Forest
Tottenham Hotspur defender Eric Dier has claimed that it ‘hurt’ to miss his team’s second-leg UEFA Champions League clash against AC Milan at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last week.
Spurs were eliminated from the round of 16 after losing 1-0 on aggregate. AC Milan won the first leg in San Siro where Dier played the entire 90 minutes.
He picked up a yellow card in the 63rd minute which meant he would be suspended for the return leg in north London. As a result, manager Antonio Conte started with a back three of Cristian Romero, Clement Lenglet and Ben Davies.
The Argentine defender ended up being sent off late in the second half as Spurs were held to a goalless draw. Tottenham bounced back from the defeat with a 3-1 Premier League win against Nottingham Forest this weekend where Dier started and, again, picked up a yellow card.
We missed Dier in the second leg
Of course, a league win at home doesn’t really compensate for elimination from the UEFA Champions League. Nevertheless, it was a big boost to our chances to finish in the top four this season especially considering Liverpool lost to AFC Bournemouth on Saturday.
Speaking after the game, the English centre-back claimed (h/t Official club website):
“Missing the Milan game definitely hurt. It was the type of game you want to play. That’s football. It was good for us to get back out there and win. Hopefully we can move on from here. I thought we played with a lot of energy, lot of positivity, played some really nice football and managed to get ahead.
“In the second half we were bit more reserved, but a few of the boys started to feel it in their legs after the last couple of weeks. It was important to see out the game, and Fraser helped us with that as well.”
We did well in the second leg even without the 29-year-old centre-back. The problem wasn’t his absence. It was how toothless we were in attack. Rodrigo Bentancur’s season-ending injury was an even bigger blow which came earlier in this campaign.
More Tottenham Hotspur News:
- Antonio Conte names Tottenham Hotspur’s three top-four contenders this season including Chelsea
- Tottenham Hotspur boss Antonio Conte hands Clement Lenglet blow to Barcelona
- Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper claims one moment could have changed Tottenham result
Perhaps things could have been different had our No. 15 started against AC Milan… you know, the Butterfly effect. Nevertheless, it is about looking forward from here. We can’t change what happened in the past but we can certainly learn from it.
What we learnt from the Champions League journey this season was that we still lack world-class players in important positions. Hopefully, that is rectified once the summer window opens.
