Bergwijn: “The coach said, ‘when you get the opportunity, do it’, I saw the space and did it”
Thu 23 December 2021, 15:15|
Tottenham Hotspur
Steven Bergwijn was encouraged to take on West Ham - and delivered in style in Carabao Cup quarter-final on Wednesday evening.
The flying Dutchman explained after the 2-1 win that Antonio Conte told him to take on the Hammers in one-on-one situations and that directly led to our match-winning goal from Lucas Moura.
Just minutes earlier, Stevie had opened the scoring after fine hold-up play and exchanging passes with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg on 29 minutes. In a crazy five-minute spell, that lead was cancelled out by Jarrod Bowen (32 minutes) only for Stevie to power past Manuel Lanzini and Arthur Masuaku to set up Lucas two minutes later.
“It’s always nice to get a goal and an assist,” reflected Stevie, named sponsor’s Man of the Match for his efforts. “I didn’t play for a while, okay, 10 minutes maybe, but it’s different when you start a game. After the goal, it went alright, I think. I’m happy. It’s my quality to go one v one and the coach said to me, ‘when you get the opportunity, do it’, I saw the space and did it.”
Handed only his seventh start of what has been an up and down campaign so far, Stevie delivered. “The coach said before that the players who start need to give him answers. At the beginning of the game, I lost a couple of easy balls, but after that, I think I did a better job. I’m just happy with the win.
“We knew we’d have to fight until the end, and the second half was more about the fight than playing football, but that’s what we needed in this game. It’s one game, one chance.”
