Dele Alli had nothing but praise for Jose Mourinho for his decision to substitute Eric Dier in the 4-2 win.
Mourinho went out and apologised to the defender but Alli saw it for what it really was – a tactical switch that worked!
Tottenham were two goals down after just 19 minutes and had to completely rethink their game plan. Mourinho took Dier out of the game and replaced him with Christian Eriksen. The substitution worked wonders as Spurs rallied back to collect all three points at North London.
Alli opened the scoring for his side just before the half-time whistle. Then, Harry Kane grabbed a brace and Serge Aurier sealed it down to put Tottenham through to the knockout stage.
Speaking to BT Sport, Alli said, “We did not start nowhere near good enough and we said at half-time we could not perform any worse. I got the goal, which was a bit lucky, but we won. We were losing and the manager made the decision to bring on a more forward-thinking player [in Christian Eriksen]. It could have been any of us to come off, especially myself, I thought I was awful in that first 20 minutes but thankfully the sub worked.”
See Also:Â 5 players who played for both Liverpool and Tottenham
