Eriksen: 'We'll always try to come back'

Captain Christian Eriksen praised his team-mates – especially young winger Anthony Georgiou – for their willingness to fight back from adversity following Saturday night's battle with Barcelona.

Missing players through injury and two goals down at half-time, we produced a superb response to take control of proceedings and haul it back to 2-2 in front of 66,805 fans at LA's famous Rose Bowl, Heung-Min Son and Georges-Kevin Nkoudou on target.

With penalties required to decide the winner of the International Champions Cup match, we fell just short as the La Liga giants triumphed 5-3. For Christian, though, the effort and spirit of the players mattered more than the outcome as our preparations for the new Premier League season continued.

"We didn’t start as well as we wanted but of course we dug in and we came back," said the midfielder. "I think at the end it was a fair result. In the first half the scoreline could have been even worse but in the second half we played better and a bit more direct and that helped us.

"Of course, we don’t want to start in the Premier League when we’re 2-0 down after the first half, so that’s something that we need to improve but showing the mentality that we know we have, where we will always try to come back, is important and we did that today.

"They played with a young team compared to normal but again, any game is something you want to win. We didn’t win today but at least we gave it a good shot in the second half."

Christian reserved words of encouragement for Academy graduate Anthony, who was the unfortunate player not to hit the target in the penalty shootout as experienced Dutch international goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen saved his effort.

"Of course, I’m one of the first who knows how it feels to miss an important penalty," winced Christian, recalling his attempt in Denmark's shootout defeat to Croatia at the World Cup a few weeks ago.

"This time it’s a friendly game. It’s never nice to miss a penalty for anyone but Anthony will get over it and he’ll have many more penalties in his career. You miss some, you score some. That’s life, that’s football but like I said, I know Anthony will come back stronger. I know he’s mentally a strong guy and a very good player so of course he will come back."

As for being back out on the pitch in the midweek 4-1 win over Roma and then again in the Barcelona match following his recent international exploits in Russia, Christian said: "I feel very well. Today I'm still getting back to getting the football touch but the condition is there. You can’t really lose that much in about 20 days off so, of course, that’s almost there. The football touch needs a little bit of work but now with two games, two times hitting the post, hopefully that'll turn around."

And on wearing the captain's armband against Barca, he added: "It was very special. That’s something I will remember. Of course, the result could have gone otherwise but leading the team out was something special and it’s a big honour."