Quotes

Leno - I had to stay positive, I had to stand up

Bernd Leno

Sunday's north London derby was one of mixed emotions for Bernd Leno. 

Our goalkeeper was heavily involved in the build-up to Tottemham's first goal, palming Erik Lamela's strike straight into Christian Eriksen's path, but made amends soon after by producing a stunning save to keep out Son Heung-min's curling effort. 

Leno spoke to the media about the incidents after the match. Read on for a full transcript of what he said:

on an up and down afternoon for him... 

I think the first goal was a little bit unlucky. I couldn't catch the ball completely and then I tried to get up but Eriksen scored, it was unlucky but that is the life of a goalkeeper. For me it was then like the team, I had to stand up. It is not a big problem just because we conceded a goal, I had to stay positive and I thought after that I did a very good job.

on whether our comeback shows the character in this team...

Yes, I think it was a very difficult start but then we said as a team on the pitch after going 2-0 down 'we have to stay positive'. There was still an hour to play and we know about the character in this team and also our quality and then after it went to 2-1 you could see that we at least wanted to draw the game and at the end we still had the chances to win.

 

on if we can catch Tottenham this season...

Yes, today we showed that we can play better than them. To be honest in the first half you saw the quality of Tottenham so again it will a very hard fight until the end of the season and then we will see who will be better.

 

on whether he understands the rivalry...

Oh, of course. When you talk to people, when you see people on the street and they recognise you, the whole week they say, 'You have to beat Spurs'. When you drive to the stadium and people see you in the car they beep their horn, they just want to win this game and then you can feel how important it is for the fans.

 

on whether it was one point gained or two points lost...

Some minutes after the game it was a little bit disappointing because we had the chance.

But after one hour you have to say it is okay because we were 2-0 down and came back to 2-2 and also that Tottenham had a lot of chances and could have scored the third goal so at the end it was a deserved draw.

 

on whether he thought Harry Kane dived...

I don't know, I think from Kane and also from Sokratis it was maybe over-reacting from both but that is normal in this game. Everybody was going crazy in the last minutes, all the fans and players were crazy and the referee made the right decision, he just said that everyone should calm down so it was okay.

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