Mon 26 April 2021, 15:56
Tottenham HotspurEric Dier took a moment. It was 7pm, 40 minutes after our Carabao Cup Final loss against Manchester City, and the defender stood on his own, pitchside, at Wembley.
He’d just finished what turned into an emotional interview with Spurs TV, watch below, and maybe it all sunk in. This is a player with 275 appearances in almost seven years at the Club and, now, three cup final defeats. He cares, and it hurts.
“I’m not going to lie, this one is very tough,” said Eric after the late 1-0 loss. “I’ve been here seven years, and to not have a trophy... it hurts me deeply. We’ll have to go again but, yes, it’s tough.”
City put us under pressure from the off, but we defended stoutly, particularly Eric and central partner Toby Alderweireld, and Hugo Lloris in goal. Goal-saving blocks went in, Hugo made his saves, and we were still goalless on 82 minutes when Aymeric Laporte got a run in the box, met Kevin De Bruyne’s free-kick and headed home.
“Obviously, we’re very disappointed,” reflected Eric. “There’s not much more I can say. Another opportunity to win a trophy and we’ve come up short and in the worst possible way, really, with the goal we conceded after managing to get into the game in the second half and starting to build some momentum.
“We survived the first half when we knew it would be difficult. They are a great team. Players had to deliver in moments, and we did that, blocks, tackles, interceptions, and we were just missing that bit at the end when we did get possession and got into some good positions, but we couldn’t sustain our attacks.
“It’s what happens against good sides. They pressure and pressure you into making a mistake. If you look at our game against Southampton last week, we did that to them in the second half, ended up getting a penalty and scoring, sustained pressure does that. We just have to do better in that moment.”
