Christian Eriksen has now made an admission about one of the most difficult moments he faced in his Tottenham Hotspur career.
Erisken was an important part of the Mauricio Pochettino revolution at Tottenham, with the Argentine building a young, hungry squad which competed for the biggest trophies regularly.
However, that Spurs side was never able to get over the line and win silverware despite being in two title races and reaching a number of cup semifinals.
It felt like they would ultimately get the biggest reward when the Lilywhites made it into the final of the Champions League for the first time in history in 2019, but it turned out to be a night to forget in Madrid.
Christian Eriksen admits Tottenham bubble burst after 2019 Champions League final
The Danish midfielder, who left Man United for Wolfsburg last summer, has been speaking about that Tottenham team.
He admits in an interview with The Times that he and his teammates let important moments slip just when they came close to doing something special.
Eriksen said: “We weren’t sharp enough in the crucial moments. It was everyone against us, everyone making sure if the big six don’t win it, Leicester have it.”
The 33-year-old described the Champions League final loss to Liverpool as “one of the biggest nightmares of my career” and accepts that Spurs never recovered.
He says about the 2-0 loss to Liverpool: “It was all the pressure from the few years before that, like the balloon got bigger and bigger, and when we lost, the air just went out of the balloon, for the club and for the players.”
2019 Champions League final changed Spurs’ and Liverpool’s trajectory
Many will have forgotten that neither Jurgen Klopp nor Mauricio Pochettino had won a trophy at Liverpool and Spurs, respectively, coming into that final.
After winning it that night, the Liverpool project went from strength to strength under Klopp, while the Spurs one collapsed, with Pochettino being sacked just months later.
It can be argued that never in modern history has one single game changed the trajectory of two clubs the way that clash at the Metropolitano Stadium did.
Six and a half years later, it feels like Tottenham are still struggling to recover and get back to where they were under Pochettino.