Eriksen: We gave Dortmund too much space

Tottenham midfielder Christian Eriksen believes the small mistakes added up during their 3-0 loss away to Borussia Dortmund in the Europa League.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s first-half header and a double from Marco Reus after the break sealed Dortmund’s win over a much-changed Spurs side.

The first-leg deficit leaves Spurs with huge task ahead of them to progress to the quarter-finals and, while the Denmark international felt his side started well, he thought the team was guilty of creating space for their opponents.

“I think we showed we are capable of playing in the first two minutes – we started well but then after that we gave the initiative to them,” Eriksen told UEFA after the game.

“Then they came forward and we tried to press but we were always late. If you are late at some point you will then be late somewhere else as well and we gave them loads of space to play in. We created space for them.

“They played well and made it difficult for us to run everywhere and try to get the ball back – we couldn’t do that so it looks we ran a lot but for nothing really.”

Eriksen is not ready to give up on the tie just yet, however.

“Of course we start again next week. We still have a game in the weekend where we need to get three points and after that we’ll hopefully get some confidence and be ready for the Thursday game,” the 24-year-old said.

“We know it will be really hard and it’s a bad result for us but luckily in the Europa League everything can happen and we are looking forward to it.”