Son in Belgrade: 'We showed a really good attitude'

Two-goal Heung-Min Son explained how he felt the players won the battle in their minds as much as with their feet in Belgrade on Wednesday night.

Back with a bang after a difficult outing at Goodison Park on Sunday, the South Korean international helped himself to a quickfire double in the second half against Crvena zvezda, putting us out of the hosts’ reach after Giovani Lo Celso’s opener. Christian Eriksen completed a fine 4-0 victory in our fourth Champions League fixture of the season.

The home side are renowned for being particularly strong on their own patch but Sonny was thrilled with the attitude and application shown by the team on the way to our first away win of 2019/20.

“I feel really, really good. It’s a really difficult place to play and we deserved the three points,” said the forward, who also bagged a brace in our 5-0 home win over Red Star a fortnight ago and has now scored the joint-highest number of Champions League goals of any player during this calendar year (nine).

“We showed a really good attitude and we can take so many positives with the clean sheet, four goals… it’s not bad to have this result. The gaffer spoke to us before the game (and said) that it’s a tough place and our opponents will be aggressive, and we should be ready. The lads were focussed, the mentality was there and that’s why we won this game.”

Son also praised Argentine international Giovani, who opened his Spurs account on his first start for the Club after an injury-affected campaign so far: “I’m more than happy for Gio,” he said. “It’s been a tough time for him and I’m happy. It doesn’t matter who scores the goals, I’m really happy for everyone. It’s up to us, every single player. We’re more than happy to win this game and score the goals.”

In the wake of the unfortunate injury to Everton’s Andre Gomes at the weekend, Son thanked his team-mates for the moral support they’ve shown him over the last few days.

“I want to work hard, try to help the team and my team-mates have helped me a lot, that’s why I scored two goals today,” he added. “I appreciate the players helping me a lot in a difficult situation.”