Tottenham’s Christian Eriksen believes that his side have dispelled any questions of being reliant on Harry Kane thanks to their 1-0 home win over relegation-threatened Bournemouth on Saturday.
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola enraged Spurs counterpart Mauricio Pochettino by labelling the London club ‘the Harry Kane’ team, but with the England international absent at the weekend, Tottenham powered to victory.
Eriksen scored the only goal of that game shortly after the interval to give his side a narrow victory and thinks that ahead of a trip to Real Madrid in midweek that they can no longer be considered a one-man team.
“We have a strong enough team to score when Harry doesn’t score,” Eriksen, 25, claimed. “If it is me or Dele Alli, or Son, or Kieran Trippier or Moussa Sissoko or anyone, anyone is good enough to finish. On this occasion the ball fell for me but it was a team performance.
“No one wants to be called a one-man team, if it is meant seriously. I don’t know if it was. It is a team performance and if you have respect you probably don’t say it. It maybe was a joke but I don’t know.”
Spurs dominated their weekend encounter but face a stiff challenge in the Bernabeu. Nevertheless, the former Ajax man believes his side to be performing on such a stage.
“We have shown it in the Premier League — take away some of the games in the Champions League last season where we were not good enough. We have definitely proved we merit being there,” he said.
“We can hopefully have a very nice and hard game at the Bernabeu and show how far we have come from the top-six to a top-three team in the Premier League.
“Quality and belief, I think, are important. I don’t think we should be scared of anything.”