Eriksen thinks Champions League win will see Tottenham shed ‘Spursy’ tag

Christian Eriksen believes winning the Champions League will alter people’s perception of Tottenham.

The Denmark international, who is rumoured to be on Real Madrid’s radar this summer, has played a key role in helping Spurs to their best ever run in Europe’s premier club competition.

But he has also been part of a team that has – so far under Mauricio Pochettino – fallen short in the big moments, as they dropped away in the 2015-16 Premier League title race, lost the 2015 Carabao Cup final to Chelsea and lost two FA Cup semi-finals.

That added to a history of messing up at the big moments, which earned them the ‘Spursy’ nickname.

The manner of their route to the final against Liverpool on Saturday went some way to shedding that tag, but winning in Madrid will put it to bed once and for all, Eriksen thinks.

He said: “Spurs as a club, if you look from a historical point of view from Tottenham at how many trophies they’ve won before, where they’ve been before, it’s new.

“It’s something that will change the club, how people look at the club, how people think about us players at Spurs.

“We’re not going to be Spursy, or whatever they call it. As a player you just go for the moment and hope it falls your way.”

Spurs’ Champions League campaign has been fraught with drama and they have been within 10 minutes of going out of the competition on five occasions.

The remarkable scenes at Manchester City and Ajax have led some people to suggest that their name is on the trophy and that it is their destiny to win it.

Eriksen, who refused to answer question on his future, has taken a much more pragmatic view of their march to Madrid.

“I don’t know if it’s destiny,” the midfielder said. “I think at the moment we’ve just been lucky.

“First of all, with the City game, with (Raheem) Sterling, I thought we were out. Gone. Then Ajax was a bit different because it was during the game.

“There was no waiting or standing around. It was just Lucas (Moura) pops up at the right time.

“It was nerve-wracking and it was dramatic. We’re just happy we were on the right side.”

Eriksen’s 80th-minute goal from the bench against Inter Milan in November prevented a group-stage exit, but he was almost responsible for their exit against City.

It was the Dane’s stray pass deep into injury time that allowed Pep Guardiola’s side to score the goal that would have given them a 5-4 aggregate lead and sent them into the semi-finals.

However, VAR saved Spurs after Raheem Sterling’s goal was chalked off because Sergio Aguero was ruled offside.

Eriksen described his range of emotions in that frantic period as “mad”.

“It was weird. I passed the ball away and they went through and ended up scoring.

“It would have been a disaster. For a few minutes, it was about trying to get back in the game because there was still in a few minutes to go.

“In the end, it was lucky they changed it and it fell our way because it would have been very, very painful.”