I feel sorry for Ajax – Eriksen admits Spurs were ´lucky´ in semi-final

Christian Eriksen admitted Tottenham were lucky after Lucas Moura’s second-half hat-trick against Ajax secured a place in the Champions League final against Liverpool.

Mauricio Pochettino’s men went into the second leg of their semi-final trailing 1-0 and first-half goals from Matthijs de Ligt and Hakim Ziyech left them 3-0 down on aggregate at half-time in Amsterdam.

Lucas struck twice within 14 minutes of the re-start before completing a remarkable comeback in the sixth minute of additional time, though Eriksen conceded that the Premier League club were fortunate to progress at the expense of their opponents.

“It was a ridiculous game,” the Denmark international told BT Sport. “In the end we were just lucky.

“I feel sorry for Ajax. They played a really good game against us. Over the two games they played the better football. In the end we were just lucky we scored.

“We felt we weren’t able to look ourselves in the mirror if we went down three or four-nil today.”

Lucas stepped up with talismanic striker Harry Kane out injured and Eriksen said the 26-year-old deserved his status as the hero following his sensational treble.

Hat-trick in the @ChampionsLeague semi-final?

No problem. #UCL #COYS pic.twitter.com/2I2rbWtGUf

— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) May 8, 2019

“Lucas had a wonderful game with three goals,” said Eriksen.

“It was not tactical today, it was more of a fight-and-heart performance. And Lucas Moura! That’s how we won the game.

“He deserves it. It’s been a roller coaster of a season. He’ll be a hero – I hope he gets a statue in England after this.

“I’m blown away. There’s no words for it. We didn’t deserve it more than them, but we got it in the end.”

Looking ahead to the final against Liverpool in Madrid, he added: “It’ll be fun.”