Trips: "I said to Chris 'I feel confident'"
Sun 19 August 2018, 11:36|Tottenham Hotspur
He did it in the World Cup semi-final – but could Kieran Trippier do it again when we needed a moment of magic against Fulham at Wembley? Of course he could!
We last saw ‘Trips’ lining-up a free-kick for England against Croatia in Moscow. On that occasion, he curled into the top corner from 25 yards with just five minutes on the clock but dreams of a World Cup Final were left shattered by Croatia’s comeback.
On Saturday, in his first appearance of the season, Kieran lined-up a free-kick with Christian Eriksen, slightly left of centre, 30 yards out, 1-1, 74 minutes on the clock.
The result? A magnificent strike beyond Fabri to hand us a 2-1 lead and spark a strong finish with Harry Kane securing a 3-1 victory soon after.
“Myself and Christian were practicing all week, but it’s just about who feels confident at that moment in time in the game,” reflected Trips.
“I spoke with Christian and I just said ‘I feel confident, can I take this one?’ and Christian said ‘yeah, no problem’, and I’m happy to tuck it away.
“People could say it’s a one-off thing (the free-kick in the World Cup) but I just practice and practice after training every day when I was away with England and at Tottenham.
“I’m absolutely delighted that I managed to score my free-kick and hopefully there’s many more this season. The most important thing was that we got the result today, six points out of two games and we move on now.”
It was suggested that Christian might struggle to get a look-in for future free-kicks...
“No, everyone knows his ability at dead ball set-pieces,” added Kieran. “I’m not fussy at all, if Christian wants to take it, he’s more than happy to take it and it’s no problem to me.”
Earlier in the game, Lucas Moura opened his Premier League account with a beauty but Fulham came back into it at the start of the second half and levelled through Aleksandar Mitrovic.
Kieran’s moment of magic saw us regain the lead and control and Harry’s first Premier League goal in August made it two wins out of two so far after last week’s opener at Newcastle.
Delighted with a goal and three points. Great effort from all the boys. Thanks for supporting us. #COYS pic.twitter.com/FDTuQNet7T
— Kieran Trippier (@trippier2) August 18, 2018
Kieran added: “After Fulham scored they were gaining momentum and they were playing well, they were passing it around and I think my goal just killed them a bit and then Harry steps up and scores in August! I couldn’t be happier for him and all the boys because we dug in today and it was a great three points.
“We knew it was going to be a tough game today, but two wins out of two, Harry gets his goal in August and hopefully he can go on now and fire more goals this season.”
It’s Manchester United next in the Premier League at Old Trafford on Bank Holiday Monday (27 August, 8pm KO).